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Greens call for scaling up actions against Israel, accusing UK government of complicity in killing

Text of a press release issued by the Green Party of England and Wales on 12th February 2024.

As Israel appears to be on the brink of an all out assault on Rafah, despite warnings against such action by the UN, Red Crescent and others, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer is demanding the UK scale up actions against the Israeli government until the killing stops. Greens are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel, prosecutions of war criminals and targeted sanctions on Israel’s leaders. 

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“It is clear that the Israeli government is refusing to heed warnings about the catastrophic implications of an all-out attack on Rafah. The UK government must now demand that Israel stop the killing, calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must also agree to this ceasefire of course, and release all hostages.  

“Decisions made by the UK government - above all its failure, month after month, to call for an immediate ceasefire - have made them complicit in the killing of almost 28,000 people to date, 12,000 of whom are children [1]. 

“Israel relies on certain weapon parts manufactured in the UK, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter whose essential components are made here [2]. A Dutch court has today ordered the state to cease the export of F-35 spare parts to Israel. We call on the UK government to follow suit, and suspend all arms export licences to Israel until the killing stops. The UK must also cease all military collaboration with Israel, including allowing Israeli use of British bases and RAF intelligence flights over Gaza.

“Greens would also implement the requirements of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign across the UK economy. This would include excluding Israel from international sporting and music events; withdrawing all public money from funds with investments in Israel; and ending beneficial trade arrangements with Israel [3]. 

“It is clear that only outside pressure will make Israel stop its mass killing. We can increase the pressure on Israeli leaders by introducing targeted sanctions against key individuals. This would include travel bans and asset freezes on Israel's leadership and cabinet members, in particular those calling for new settlements in Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank. 

“Finally, we would encourage UK authorities including the Metropolitan Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to pursue perpetrators of war crimes committed where UK citizens are the victims or where UK citizens are potential perpetrators. 

“There are many steps the UK government could take to pressure Israel to stop the killing. Its refusal to do so means that they are implicitly condoning the appalling carnage in Gaza.” 

Notes

  1. Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera 
  2. Who Arms Israel? (workersinpalestine.org)
  3. This is consistent with the Green Party’s non-violent approach to demonstrating its opposition to breaches of human rights and international law. It is parallel to calls we have made for boycotts of a number of different countries in the past including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, and Qatar.

Climate at the BBC - an interview with Jon Fuller

Jon Fuller is an independent environmental campaigner who is deeply concerned about the climate crisis which the planet is facing. He is also worried that so many people seem to be unaware of the severity of the situation, and he holds the media and particularly the BBC partly to blame for this. After Ofcom became the official regulator for the BBC early last year, Jon's taken the BBC complaints procedure through its various stages, and he's now delivered a 14-page dossier, backed up by dozens of pages of documents, to Ofcom. He's asking them to investigate the BBC's coverage of climate issues over the period that they've been the official regulator and is hoping for a ruling with steps the BBC must take to improve. Ofcom has already admonished the BBC over an interview with Nigel Lawson broadcast by R4 Today in which various inaccuracies were aired without challenge. Mr Fuller cites various major climate-related summits, speeches, and declarations which the BBC gave little or no coverage to. He also questions the false balance where climate deniers are pitted against mainstream scientific views, but no time is given to the ever-growing number of highly regarded climate scientists who go much further in suggesting we're reaching tipping points and that runaway climate change may have already begun. He highlights too the total lack of economic scrutiny regarding the cost of climate change. This omission provides a heavy bias in favour of fossil fuel industries.

The interview took place at a small protest outside the BBC on Friday morning during which visitors to the BBC were leafletted. Several staff stopped and talked with the protesters including Head of News Fran Unsworth who angrily pointed to recent wide coverage of a UN report. But another news editor agreed that the BBC was not doing enough and told protesters that the BBC would not change until its own vast pension funds divested away from City of London and fossil fuel interests.

Jon's dossier was delivered to Ofcom on the 10th October - if you want to help you can write to them and support his call for a thorough investigation and ruling on the BBC.

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