Photo: OCHA Actions Bulletin - October 2023 * Read the ICAHD Statement * Absorb Reflections on Imminent Genocide * View Jeff Halper’s October Update * Respond to the Atrocities * Note the Dates for Your Diary
ICAHD's Statement https://icahd.org/2023/10/09/icahd-statement-on-the-gaza-war/
ICAHD mourns the loss of all lives, Israeli and Palestinian, whether in the Hamas incursion or in the course of Israel’s disproportionate retaliation. All lives are precious, period. Precisely for that reason, however, we need to emphasize the political context if we hope to ever achieve a substantially just resolution and prevent further deaths and suffering.
The context is clear. The Palestinians have never been at war with Jews; they have been resisting a unilateral settler colonial project whose declared aim is the take-over of their homeland, the transformation of Palestine into Israel and the erasure of the Palestinian people, its culture and heritage. Calls to “end the violence” are not enough. On the contrary, they create a false dichotomy between military conquest, occupation, displacement, repression and the war crimes of a settler state on the one hand and the resistance of a colonized people with no state of their own, no army and no support from the major political powers on the other. Under the guise of “security” and “self-defense,” the United States and Europe have supported Israel’s killing and displacement of Palestinians – routinely described as “terrorists” – while ignoring and even justifying Israeli state terrorism. Read the full statement here The Choice: Apartheid/Genocide or a Shared Democracy - Jeff Halper
Photo: AFP
I am going to bed tonight in full certainty that as I sleep, Israel, a member state of the UN, abetted, armed, and egged on by the US and the other G-7 countries that rule the world, is committing genocide in Gaza.
Confining two and half million people to a tiny area (while cynically and cruelly advising them to "leave"), cutting off all food, water, and electricity, declaring that all Gazans are Hamas, thus making even children legitimate targets, carpet bombing for days to "soften" the terrain, and then, tonight as I sleep, invading with an army of 300,000 soldiers -- that is THE definition of genocide.
The world is run by war criminals, which imperils oppressed and poor people the world over. But tonight, we must think of the people of Gaza, thousands of whom will die in the next days, their lives destroyed, their cities, town and villages obliterated.
The dramatic break-out by Hamas fighters could have been a heroic and potentially decisive blow for Palestinian liberation. In fact, it did achieve at least two strategic goals. It restored Palestinian pride and agency by resisting oppression and proving that Israel was not invincible. And it demonstrated that the Palestinians can no longer be ignored and excluded as political actors. which the cynical, US-led attempt to "normalize" Israel in the Arab and Muslim world without addressing the Palestinian national rights tried to do. Read the full article here (https://icahd.org/2023/10/12/your-choice-apartheid-genocide-or-one-democratic-state-for-all/ )
Watch the 21 minute video here
- An immediate ceasefire – collective punishment is a war crime; the British Government should call for de-escalation and not offer to send military enforcements. - Humanitarian aid to be immediately sent into Gaza. Both the Government and the leader of the Opposition have refused to condemn the imposition of this siege. - UN protection for Palestinians be dispatched into Gaza now. - Join marches and demonstrations where you live
- Contribute to ICAHD’s ongoing cutting-edge work through financial donationsor by becoming a member Dates for Your Diary
Photo: Scene at Greenbelt – Stephen Sizer
Saturday, 14 October at 12 noon – March with ICAHD UK during the London demonstration. Meet outside Cafe Nero at the junction of Regent Street and Great Castle Street (a few minutes walk from Oxford Circus tube station). We will leave from here to join the demonstration as it departs from the BBC.
Monday 30 October 2023 6.30pm, One Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ – International Centre Justice for Palestine sponsors ‘Oslo Accords at 30: From the Illusion of Peace to Apartheid’. Register here .
Wednesday 15 November 2023 at 5.00pm - ICAHD UK Webinar. Jeff Halper in Conversation with Avi Shlaim on his new book 'Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew'. Further details will be available shortly. Many thanks for your ongong support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please join usor make a donation to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history.
From all at ICAHD UK. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email
October Update from Jeff Halper
Jeff Halper continues his monthly update on events and political developments in Palestine/Israel. The dramatic events on 7^th October have changed the paradigm. While we at ICAHD place great importance on critical analysis in finally reaching a just and inclusive political settlement, Jeff has asked us to acknowledge that his remarks are being made at a moment when Palestinians in Gaza face what may well become a genocidal Israeli invasion, and that we at ICAHD extend our solidarity to them, together with keeping them constantly in our thoughts.
Respond to the Atrocities
Israel prepares for genocide in Gaza - Understand the context & circulate ICAHD’s analysis to others - Write to your political representatives – in the UK (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/) ask that your request be sent to the Foreign Secretary as you call for: