Continue to fight for a world where Palestine is free – Peter Leary
Peter Leary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign spoke at Stop the War’s recent International Anti-War Conference. You can read his speech below.
Thank you, chair
I don’t need to remind this audience that we are now approaching three years since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Indeed, one of the calls that I hope will be endorsed by this important conference is for coordinated actions on 10 October as we reach that horrific milestone. More than 73,000 Palestinians killed, millions displaced, the deliberate destruction of hospitals, schools, homes and universities. A genocide that continues despite the so-called ceasefire, almost 1,000 Palestinians have been violently killed since it supposedly took effect.
In the West Bank, Palestinians continue to confront violence and forced displacement. Throughout their homeland and as refugees in exile, Palestinians are subjected to a cruel system of apartheid.
Now clearly, in their decades-long struggle against oppression, dispossession, occupation and apartheid, our global solidarity matters to Palestinians. But one thing that the last three years have taught us is that the Palestinian struggle also matters to us all.
Because what is at stake today are two very different visions of the future.
Israel is only able to carry out its atrocities because of the support that it receives from Western governments and institutions.
Just last week, the British government allowed stolen Palestinian land in illegally occupied territory to be openly sold here in London.
And what happens to those who oppose these crimes? They are demonised, criminalised and subject to attacks on our democratic rights. And it is those same governments, whose moral bankruptcy has been exposed by their support for Israel’s crimes, that are dragging us all towards disaster.
From Venezuela and Cuba, to Iran, Lebanon and across the world, the US is increasingly trying to use military might to bolster and maintain its declining economic position. This is what it means to live in a world of impunity
They want to use Palestine as the testing ground for what Palestinians have described as a ‘might-makes-right order that threatens humanity at large.’
But for that very reason, the struggle and determination of the Palestinian people can inspire our resistance too, because the paradox of this moment is that the global movement for Palestinian rights is stronger than it has ever been before.
In the past few years, we have built the most sustained protest movement since the struggle for women’s suffrage.
From weekly shopping baskets to Town Halls throughout the country, the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions is growing.
Across Britain, dozens of local councils have now endorsed divestment of pension funds from companies that are implicated in Israel’s crimes.
Consumers are refusing to buy Israeli apartheid products, and students are demanding an end to complicity on their campuses.
This week, PSC launched a new campaign – Delete Genocide Tech – targeting corporations such as Cisco Systems, Palantir and Oracle that provide Israel with technology used to monitor and target Palestinians.
And even the government is starting to feel the effects of the demand for sanctions. For millions of voters, Palestine is now on the ballot when they go to the polls, and it is in no small part down to this issue that Keir Starmer’s Prime Ministership has come to such an ignoble end.
In our workplaces and trade unions, universities and communities, our movement brings together people from all backgrounds and every walk of life.
So, Palestine is not just a foreign policy question. It is a question of the world we want to build.
Because Palestine matters to the progressive majority. To the labour movement, climate campaigners, anti-racists, LGBT activists, and all those who believe in freedom and justice, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people
And so, our solidarity with Palestine is central to the wider battle – against the warmongers and the rising fascist right both at home and abroad. So if we want to live in a world without war, a world built on justice, founded on freedom, we must continue to fight for a world in which Palestine is free.
- Peter Leary is Deputy Director of Campaigns at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) – you can follow him on X/Twitter and follow PSC on X/Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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