Louise Nousratpour
Friday January 25, 2008
The Morning Star
PALESTINE solidarity campaigners will demand an end to the brutal siege on Gaza at Downing Street on Saturday as part of an international day of action.
Organised by groups including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the protest will kick off at 4pm to urge the British government to end its collusion with Israel's "murderous" policies.
Israel's enduring crimes against the Palestinians escalated this month when ministers tightened the illegal siege on the Gaza Strip, cutting off all essential supplies including food, electricity, fuel, water and medical provisions.
Since the action, conditions in what campaigners have branded an "open-roofed prison" have seriously deteriorated. Some 80 per cent of the strip's 1.5 million residents are surviving on handouts from international aid organisations.
Even the critically ill are not allowed through. Cancer patient Mahmoud Hussein died last Saturday after Israeli authorities denied the 18-year-old access to medical treatment.
He was the 72nd person to die as a direct result of Israel's embargo on medical supplies.
Organisers are particularly appealing to nurses and doctors to join Saturday's protest in uniform to "visibly express their opposition" to Israel's blockade on life-saving medical supplies to Gaza.
"Collective punishment is being inflicted upon the Palestinians for voting for a government against the wishes of Israel, the US and the EU," the solidarity campaign said.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn called on his government to "put the strongest possible pressure on Israel and demand economic sanctions.
"We cannot stand idly by while a large number of wholly innocent civilians in Gaza are condemned to life in a prison because of Israel's illegal actions," he insisted.
Mr Corbyn stressed that "the peace process will not come about by a one-sided process of support being given to Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas."
Israeli peace organisations accused their own government of engaging in "state terrorism."
In a signed letter, they called on "the governments of the world and, in particular, the American government and the European Parliament, to censure Israel's actions.
"We call upon the Jews of the world, in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, to speak out unequivocally against this offence to the very moral core of Jewish values," said the letter.
European Jews for a Just Peace has urged the World Health Organisation to put pressure on Israel to end its "medical warfare" in Gaza.
Welsh Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans, who is planning a trip to Palestine to see the situation first-hand, called the siege of Gaza "against international law as well as being morally abhorrent."
Malcom Smart of Amnesty International stressed: "The passage of aid, fuel and electricity and other basic necessities must be allowed to resume immediately."
In desperation, tens of thousands of Gazans have poured into neighbouring Egypt to stock up on essential supplies.
But this lifeline was brutally severed on Friday when the Egyptian authorities called in the troops, who used water cannons and batons to beat the crowd back into Gaza.
Palestinian economist Hasan Abu Ramadan warned that the crippling blockade was causing "all-out famine, disease and malnutrition."
Dr Ahmed Abu Tawahineh of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme said that, since last June, only 100 out of more than 1,000 applicants have been allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment.
Saturday's rally follows demonstrations in Birmingham and Leicester last Wednesday and Thursday.
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