In Parliament
- Following a question from Caroline Lucas, Alastair Burt writes that “Israeli accession to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OECD) does not demonstrate an acceptance of illegal settlements or stand in the way of Palestinian statehood.”
- Lucas also queries UK military aid to Israel. Not too long ago, Nick Clegg argued that ‘We must stop arming Israel’. You might like to remind him through his contact page.
- In the Lords, Liberal Democrat Baroness Jenny Tonge also asks important questions in the Lords over Israeli detention of Palestinian children and subsequent beatings and torture, as well as the IDF’s use of Palestinian children as human shields (cf. the Goldstone Report) and shooting at those collecting building gravel in Gaza, as noted in last week’s Eye on Palestine.
- And Liberal Democrat Lord Dykes pushes the Government regarding the early release of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons without due process.
No Change to Universal Jurisdiction
- Read our briefing about the legal power that allows suspected perpetrators of crimes such as war crimes, torture and genocide to be prosecuted in the national courts of countries other than those where the alleged crimes were committed.
- Under ‘intense pressure’ from the US and Israel, the Conservatives are seeking to dilute this important power.
- Use PSC’s fantastic e-tool to email your MP, calling upon them to make public their opposition to any change in the law on universal jurisdiction.
Israel’s loyalty oath
- Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi writes: ‘Loyalty oath relegates Israel’s Palestinian citizens to inferior status’
- British film-maker Mike Leigh has cancelled a trip to Israel in protest against the controversial plan.
- Interesting analysis piece from Jonathan Cook: ‘the self-declared Jewish state qualifies not as a liberal democracy but as a much rarer political entity: an ethnocracy.’
West Bank Settlements
- According to MEMO, Israeli bulldozers have razed more land for housing units north of Shalit. UN envoy Robert Serry describes the flurry of post-moratorium developments as ‘alarming’.
- Read this excellent UN factsheet, ‘The Case of Sheikh Jarrah: October 2010‘ from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territory. Sheikh Jarrah is an East Jerusalem neighbourhood where ‘settler organizations have stated their intent to build at least 540 settlement units… placing an estimated 475 Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, dispossession and displacement’.
- According to EI, Israeli police are now recruiting from the illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Gaza
- In evidence that frequently contradicted his own earlier affidavits the Israeli soldier in bulldozer who crushed Rachel Corrie claims in court that he ‘did not see her’.
- According to AFP, Hamas security forces raided and shut down the headquarters of the Palestinian Journalists Union in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
- The family of Gilad Shalit, the soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006, sharply criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not securing his release despite the disclosure that a German mediator had renewed contact with both sides.
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- Feel strongly about this? Email your local MP, Nick Clegg, or William Hague.
- What did we miss? Email: info@ldfp.eu. Links do not necessarily imply endorsement.
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