Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians - almost half of
them children. 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced,
many of whom multiple times. Nowhere in Gaza is safe: entire
residential neighbourhoods have been levelled, UN schools
sheltering the displaced, and hospitals treating the wounded, have
been repeatedly targeted. Palestinians in Gaza are facing famine
due to Israel's blockade and its targeting of life-sustaining
infrastructure. In June 2024, UN experts declared that
“Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign
against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and
has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.”
We all have a responsibility to stand with Palestinians in the face
of such catastrophic violence and do everything in our power to
bring such suffering to an end.??
In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world
court, handed down an interim ruling affirming there is plausible
evidence Israel is committing genocidal acts against the
Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. As a State Party to the
Genocide Convention, the UK has a binding obligation to employ all
means reasonably available to prevent and deter further genocidal
acts.
In June, UN experts issued a statement demanding that both states
and companies stop all arms transfers to Israel. In issuing their
call, they outlined that financial institutions, such as banks and
pension funds, investing in arms companies supplying Israel must
cease, writing that financial institutions “failure to
prevent or mitigate their business relationships with these arms
manufacturers transferring arms to Israel could move from being
directly linked to human rights abuses to contributing to them,
with repercussions for complicity in potential atrocity
crimes.” The council must heed this call.
DIVEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEMES FOR PALESTINE
The recent defeat of the previous government’s draconian attempts to restrict the right of public bodies to take ethical investment and procurement decisions means that there is no barrier to the council exercising its profound moral obligation not to contribute to Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights.
This ePetition runs from 22/08/2024 to 17/02/2025.
18 people have signed this ePetition.