Letter to Rt. Hon. David Lammy, Secretary of State Foreign Affairs - Gaza under fresh attack

 

The Rt. Hon. David Lammy,

Secretary of State Foreign Affairs,

House of Commons,

London SW1A 0AA

UK.

10 July 2024

Dear Foreign Secretary, 

 

Subject: Letter to Rt. Hon. David Lammy, Foreign Office/Gaza under fresh attack.

 

I write following your recent appointment to urge you to take immediate action to demonstrate your commitment to upholding international law and protecting the human rights of the Palestinian people.  Please see the attached.

 

This could not be more urgent. For over nine months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subject to Israel’s ongoing violence. You will be aware that a recent report published in the Lancet estimates that the death count could exceed 186,000 people (over 8% of the total population), as a result of what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has accepted as a plausible case of genocide. 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister and Defence Minister alongside Hamas leaders, for crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

 

With this in mind, I am urging you to implement these four initial steps without delay: 

  1. Publicly demand and actively work to ensure an immediate, complete, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
  2. Immediately abandon the previous government’s attempt to frustrate the ICC, and support moves by both the ICJ and ICC to hold Israel to account for breaches of International Humanitarian Law.
  3. Stop all arms trade with Israel to ensure that Britain and its citizens are not at risk of aiding and abetting crimes including genocide.
  4. Stand up for the rights and dignity of Palestinian refugees by announcing the immediate and full restoration of British funding to UNRWA and ensuring it can fulfil its mandate.

The current atrocities in Gaza are built on the foundations of decades of violations of Palestinian rights by Israel, in which successive British governments have been complicit. You now have the opportunity to change that – and can start by taking the four actions listed above.  

 

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Hasanat Husain MBE

On behalf of Voice for Global Bangladeshis


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