Israel must be forced to end its collective punishment

SPSC calls for intensified solidarity with Palestine as Israeli occupation forces perpetrate yet another illegal collective punishment against the Palestinian people.  Since the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers from illegal settlements in the West Bank, the Israeli occupation forces have

  • killed at least 6 Palestinian civilians, including one 14-year-old child and a mentally ill man;
  • assassinated three members of armed Palestinian groups in Gaza violation of international law;
  • wounded at least 90 Palestinians, including 16 children and three journalists;
  • conducted over 160 military incursions into Palestinian towns and villages and invaded hundreds of civilian homes;
  • raided 4 university campuses and 18 charitable associations, a refugee cultural centre and the offices of two cultural magazines;
  • arrested between 440 and 560 Palestinians, including at least 10 children;
  • conducted 100 airstrikes in the Gaza strip causing injuries to civilians and targeting greenhouses, an UNRWA health clinic, blacksmith workshop and turnery, a concrete factory and agricultural lands.

The siege of Gaza, enforced by Israel, Egypt, and the EU
SPSC also notes the usual mainstream media reporting over the last few weeks which fails to provide appropriate coverage of the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people, or the humanity of those killed and injured.

Israeli state-enforced collective punishment against a whole population is a monstrous crime to which our governments turn a blind eye. Israel has a long history of indiscriminate airstrikes, killing and imprisonment of Palestinians and targeting of civilian infrastructure as well as settlement construction and land grabs – regardless of whether or not Israelis have been killed..

The people of Scotland can no longer stand by as Israel tries to justify apartheid, settler colonialism and brutal military occupation.

We call on the Scottish Government to

  1. open Scottish hospitals to Palestinian casualties of the impending Israeli massacre
  2. end all meetings with Israeli Government officials.
  3. end grants to Israeli companies in Scotland
  4. send an official fact-finding mission to Gaza and the West Bank to report back to the people of Scotland

We call on all supporters of Palestinian freedom to come together in Emergency Committees on Palestine across Scotland to maximise our collective resistance to Israel's planned atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Scottish Committee
July 4th 2014