March 4, 2010
UK members of the parliamentary delegation to Gaza, organised by the
European Campaign and the Palestinian Return Centre presented
'Eyewitness Gaza’ in Westminster on Monday evening.
In a packed Select Committee Room, British Parliamentarians,
including Sir Gerald Kaufman, Bob Marshall Andrews, Baroness Jenny
Tonge, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Martin Linton, Jeremy Corbyn, and Richard
Howitt MEP spoke about what they had seen when they broke the siege on
Gaza in January.
Joining the esteemed panellists were Lord Steel, who is going to Gaza
this week, Majed Al Zeer Director of the Palestinian Return Centre and
Arafat Shoukri, chair of the European Campaign to End the Siege on
Gaza.
It was a highly anticipated event jointly organised with Labour
friends of Palestine following the largest ever delegation to Gaza
which comprised of 60 parliamentarians from 13 different European
countries and resulting in an authoritative report.
The chair of the event Martin Linton began with a eulogy of the
organisers. All the representatives and the organisers shared their
gratitude towards the Egyptian authorities for allowing the delegation
to enter Gaza. The importance of witnessing the daily human tragedy in
Gaza was widely shared to break the information blackout over Gaza in
the west.
The despair and frustration was palpable on an emotional night.
'This was the most extraordinary experience of my life’ said Bob
Marshall Andrews, 'nothing prepares you for what we saw and heard in
Gaza’.
Baroness Jenny Tonge provided a moving account of the health
challenges faced by those she met and interviewed. She was struck by
the level of post traumatic stress which will have a lasting effect on
victims and on the of Palestinian society to recover and prosper.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, the leader of the delegation, made a very
poignant speech noting the responsibility of the UK and the EU to lift
the siege. 'what we saw was collective punishment in Gaza and it is
the responsibility of the people of this country and western democracy
to remind everyone of the atrocity taking place every day before our
eyes’.
'Gaza was worse than I ever thought’ said Sir Gerald 'it was
incredible and callous destruction’. With the trauma inflicted on
Palestinian children, sir Gerald argued that Israel was condemning
itself; it is harvesting a generation of disaffected children driven
with rage and anger at the injustice and intolerable situation imposed
on them.
Lord Ahmed, a member of previous delegations, spoke of the total
hypocrisy of the policies adopted in the region. In mentioning the
2006 election win of Hamas he said 'the British government was
prepared to engage in a long bloody war which killed hundreds of
thousands in Iraq with the intention to spread democracy and here in
Palestine there was democracy in action, not dictated by the barrel of
the gun and we spurned it’.
Jeremy Corbyn spoke of his personal anguish in coming to terms with
the terrible conditions, ' I felt bitter, frustrated, angry and
unworthy’ he said, in describing his emotions of witnessing the
conditions in Gaza and personally struggling to come to terms with the
situation.
Richard Harrett, Labour MEP said 'the ability to make peace was
disappearing’ after reflecting on the situation in Gaza. He echoed
all the previous speakers’ sentiments that the EU had to take
effective measures, which it has in its disposal, such as maintaining
its refusal to upgrade the EU Israeli trade agreement and pushing for
it’s suspension in line with Article 2 which dictates respect for
human rights.
Dr Arafat Shoukri then spoke of the work of the European Campaign
and its continued effort to address the humanitarian crises and
facilitate the political process, 'this was a human disaster where
many authorities were complicit and should feel ashamed’ he said.
Majed al Zeer, Director of PRC, provided some historical background
to Gaza saying, 'Gaza was not the first and I’m afraid won’t be
the last’. Gaza, he argued was the continuation of a single problem
which is the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). 'The Nakba was there
before Hamas and before Hamas rockets, the Nakba was there before the
PLO and Arafat, the Nakba was there before any Palestinian resistance,
so called extremism and terrorism. Israel has made Nakba the eternal
condition of Palestinians and has continually tried to erase its
crimes against the Palestinian people’.
-Ends-
For more information contact Nasim Ahmed nasim@prc.org.uk
www.prc.org.uk
www.labourfriendsofpalestine.co.uk
|
