Tony Burke Speech April 13th, Labour & Palestine, Bedford PSC Trade Union Officer
Hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating in London every two weeks including many from Bedfordshire and our trade unions.
Without those demonstrations the genocide now taking place in Gaza everyday many people would have looked have looked the other way – so we can be proud of the work of the PSC and others and of local groups like we have in Bedford for campaigning to bring justice and an end to this war in Gaza.
Nobody condones the attacks by Hamas on October 7th last year – but total war against the people of Palestine including the deliberate targeting of aid workers, civilians, women and children, hospitals and the infrastructure of Gaza is barbaric and a crime against humanity – as is deliberate starvation and famine.
Friends, the international pressure on the United Nations Security Council to finally got them to vote for a ceasefire.
And now the pressure has also building to stop the UK government providing arms export licenses to Israel and to suspend trade agreements with them as an apartheid state.
With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on the brink of famine, and Israel making clear it will ignore the UN, action is needed now to enforce the will of the international community.
It is the clear duty of the UK government to end its complicity in Israel’s genocide and to ensure Netanyahu’s government be treated as war criminals.
Netanyahu’s government can no longer ‘win the war’ instead they are being condemned worldwide for genocide, for creating famine and economic disaster.
Those of us in trade unions and who suppport Labour Palestine and who have many friends in the Palestinian trade union movement have seen their Palestinian union offices deliberately blown up – we will not be looking the other way – we have always been here for them we always will be.
So Labour & Palestine calls upon the Labour Party to demand a permanent ceasefire, to ban on arms export licenses and to support the suspension of trade with Isreal until the Palestinian people get justice and to end to the war in Gaza, self determination and freedom for Palestine.
