Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz declared last week that “no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza,” effective announcing the intention of his government to continue the collective punishment of the battered and besieged civilian population of the Palestinian enclave.
“Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure liver levers, the prevention levers of the prevention levers of their use as a tool with the population,” he continued, “nobody currently plans to allow any graz of humanitarian aid, and there are no preparations.”
Many leaders and international leaders and institutions, such as amnesty and viewing of human rights, have long identified Israel’s help weapon in Gaza as an act of genocide. In response to Katz’s most recent comments, once again they condemned the genocidal policies of the Israeli government and asked the Western allies of Israel to take measures to enforce international law.
These convictions and calls to action, however, clearly do not produce the desired results. After 18 months devastating, Israel is still bombing, shooting, displacing and looking at the Palestinians, while openly declare their intention to continue with thesis crimes for the predictable future. And he is still doing it with all the political, military and diplomatic support of his western allies, including Britain.
That is why we believe it is time for British NGOs to change.
During the last 18 months, many of us who work in the Human Rights and Help sectors in Great Britain made repeated requests to our government to make the minimum and enforce the basic principles of international law, Israel. We campaigned, we press, we promised and explain. We show the evidence, we point out the law and ask our leaders to do the right thing. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. We have the leg with nothing more than indifference.
To this day, the Keir Starmer’s government continues to trade and even sell weapons to the Israeli government, despite being aware of the shameless crimes that Israel commits day after day in Gaza and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. It still considers Israel a key ally despite knowing that the International Court of Justice (CIJ) is reviewing an accusation of genocide aimed at its “war” in Gaza and that there is an arrest warrant against the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for several crimes of war and crimes against humanity.
Last week, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain, David Lammy, held conversations with Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the main diplomat of a government under investigation for the genocide, while in an unnoticed visit to London. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Lammy with Sa’ar to “discuss Gaza and other pressing problems of the Middle East”, a duration of what he described as the “private visit of the Israeli minister to the United Kingdom.”
This is unacceptable. British government officials should not have any public or private meeting with higher ministers of a country accused of the most atrocious crimes recognized in international law. They should not be “arguing Gaza and other pressing problems of the Middle East” with Israeli leaders, while Israel continues to bombard refugee tents, kill journalists and doctors, and block the delivery of help to a population under a relentless sieve.
No politician can claim ignorance of what is happening. Tens of thousands or Palestinians have killed. Many more have mutilated, traumatized and displaced. Hospitals, clinics, refugee camps, schools, universities, residential neighborhoods, water and food facilities have been destroyed. Hundreds of humanitarian workers, both local and foreign, including the British, have been attacked and killed, for the crime of trying to help the Palestinians.
The British public in general is horrified by what Israel is doing in the occupied Palestinian territories, and they want to stop. We have seen this in several opinion surveys and in the streets in the form of huge protests.
And yet, our government is uncompromising. The meetings that so many human help organizations had with senior ministers and officials, difficult to achieve in the first place, have had no impact. The Starmer government is waterproof to all normal lobbying and campaign tools we use. He refuses to hold Israel responsible to give an account of his shameless violations of international law.
It’s time for us to try a different strategy. We cannot continue related to the British government as if we were simply having a political disagreement. This is not a routine case of our government that refuses to pay enough attention to a conflict or crisis, due to different priorities or conflicting interests. This is not a disagreement that we can overcome through commitment and debate. Great Britain leaders today not only ignore the most atrocious war crimes that are broadcast live on our screens daily, but also insist on supporting the perpetrators of crimes: diplomatic, political and militat.
We believe that the only way in which NGOs can make a real difference in this space is to put an end to full participation with the government on this issue. By continuing to talk with the government, we are not helping the Palestinians in the field or our targets of wheat with a goal on their backs in Gaza. We are simply providing the government with the opportunity to say that you are doing something to help trapped in the Killing area of Israel.
We must not participate in processes and commitment that will be used to bleach the complicity of Great Britain in Israel’s crimes.
Instead of trying to talk to a government that has no intention of listening, we must support protests, boycots and legal efforts to hold Israel leaders to account for their role in genocide. It is possible that the British government is not willing to pay attention to our campaigns and reports, but Angoy will pay attention to the increasing protests in the streets and legal decisions against their Israeli allies in the British and international courts. At this time, continue a dialogue with the Gimast Gimast Government in British foreign policy instruments.
There is only one way to follow. We must name aloud what is happening in Gaza, a genocide. We must appoint the crime, underline the complicity of our government in it and focus our efforts to raise the voices of our Palestinian colleagues in the field. Meetings with ministers and public officials behind closed doors do not make a difference, but inform the public of what is really happening in Gaza, with the support of our government, only May.
We know that our actions cannot magically end the genocide in occupied Palestine, but they can still make a difference. We can add to the pressure on those who have the power to stop butcher shop, which is so necessary. In addition, stopping our unsuccessful commitment to the Government will allow us to reorient our work, re -connect with the broadest audience of who should be our legitimacy and strength, and focus our energy for people on that difference in cancer by people.
The actions that, as members of the help sector and human rights in Britain, now take, not only matter to those of Gaza. The way in which our government, our leading institutions and our society largely deal with genocide in Gaza will establish a precedent of how they will discuss crises and emergencies in the future, at home and abroad. It will determine whether our country will be a force that works to defend human rights and international law, or one that stepped on them every time the pact. Today, we must all fight for what is correct and show our government that indifference is not acceptable to genocide, we do not become consolidated. History will judge how we respond to this moment.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.