Saturday, March 09, 2024

 

We must continue to fight for justice & freedom for the Palestinian people.- Louise Regan, NEU

“The ICJ couldn’t have been clearer when it said that Israel must prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza & enable the provision of basic services & humanitarian assistance.”

Louise Regan. NEU

Louise Regan, National Education Union, addressed the Labour & Palestine “Women for Palestine” rally in the run-up to International Women’s Day. You can read a published version of her speech or watch the event below:

I am very proud to belong to the NEU a trade union which has a long and proud history of standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

We have all been shocked by what we have witnessed over the last four months in Gaza. Over 30,000 Palestinians killed, two thirds of them women and children.

No education has taken place in Gaza since 7th October, all university buildings have been destroyed and the majority of schools have been partially or totally destroyed.

At the ICJ case taken by South Africa we heard that 10 children a day are facing an amputation without anaesthetic.

Last week I heard from a medic in Gaza that a young child who had had to have both hands amputated had asked his parents if his hands would grow back.

As an educator I can’t get these images and stories out of my head – how shocking that children are facing this.

People in Gaza have nowhere left to go – there is no safe space.

The International Court of Justice could not have been clearer when it said that Israel must prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.

Yet, as the bombs and missiles rain down in Rafah, it is hard to imagine a more flagrant abuse of that order…

Rather than suspending arms sales to Israel, the UK Government has halted funding for UNWRA – the only lifeline available for two million Gazans.

Instead of de-escalating the conflict they escalate it through airstrikes on Yemen.

And they continue to abstain on UN votes for a ceasefire.

That’s why many UK charities have warned the UK Government that unless it changes course it is complicit in the slaughter of civilians in Gaza.

We also know that Palestinians in the West Bank are facing increasing oppression and aggression with death tolls being the highest since they were started to be recorded with 413 Palestinians killed, 107 of them children.

The NEU has continued to support the national demonstrations with our General Secretary and national President speaking. We have encouraged members to attend and take along their union banners. Our members have set up an educators for Palestine group to share resources and ideas and we have set up a fundraiser with Save the Children to raise money for urgently needed aid.

But as others have said we know this did not begin on the 7th October. Palestinians have suffered decades of oppression and dispossession so we must continue to push for a permanent ceasefire now and humanitarian aid but then we must continue to fight for justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.




 

Palestinian women face horrors of an unimaginable scale – Ryvka Barnard, Palestine Solidarity Campaign

“Women and girls are facing the indignity of having no supplies to attend to their menstrual cycles, not to mention privacy, something that is an unimaginable luxury for them to even dream of now.”

Ryvka Barnard, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, addressed the Labour & Palestine “Women for Palestine” rally in the run-up to International Women’s Day. You can read a published version of her speech or watch the event

And all this on top of the famine facing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, the bombing they are all subjected to, the ground invasions, the forced disappearances by Israeli military and the torture and ill-treatment in prisons, which is also meted out to women.

As comrades have said before me, the burden of war and colonialism hits women doubly hard.

But also, as always, Palestinian women are no exception to the global phenomenon of women also being at the forefront of the struggle for justice, and in service to their people. I want to pay tribute today to all of the Palestinian women who are courageously facing these unprecedented challenges: the doctors, nurses, and other medical workers who are saving lives or providing comfort to the dying in the Gaza Strip; the teachers and community activists who are organising lessons and play for Palestinian children in shelters, children whose lives will never be the same after this, if they even survive, and the structure of a group activity might be the only thing that can bring a smile to their faces. The women who are working as journalists, and particularly since international media cannot get into Gaza, who are diligently reporting and documenting both the violence against, and the strength of their people. The mothers, sisters, aunties and others who are at the same time, very ordinary, but actually extraordinary in their work to keep their community together in the face of such horrors.

These are the women who will never be celebrated by name in international forums, who won’t become news sensations or heroes, but whose work is the foundational work that Palestinian women have been doing for decades to uplift their people that has inspired so many of us, including myself.

So what is our responsibility as people of conscience in the solidarity movement, in the face of such horrific violence, and such inspiring courage and strength? And what do we do in the face of overwhelming British complicity in Israel’s violence, and government attempts to stifle and silence our solidarity movement, attempts which have reached a fever pitch this week? Our priority at PSC, and across the solidarity movement, must be to work tirelessly for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. PSC and partners are planning another national march this Saturday, and I’m proud and excited to say that this weekend we’ll have an entire line-up of women speaking in support of a ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel. And I do want to thank those on this call who have been supporting and speaking at these marches for months now, especially those MPs who have done so at huge cost and despite threats, not from their constituents, but from the British government and party leaders!

In advance of this event tonight, I spoke to a Palestinian friend in the occupied West Bank, and she asked me to mention to you all how important is has been for her and her comrades to see our marches in London. Of course, the main purpose of our marches is to put pressure on politicians here to take action, but they do also provide some comfort and hope to Palestinians around the world, including in occupied Palestine, to see that they have not been forgotten by the majority of people in the world, even if they’ve been forsaken by those in power.

There’s much more for us to do…marching for a ceasefire, keeping up our Stop Arming Israel campaigns, and starting new campaigns to push for accountability and to support the Palestinian call for justice. Thanks to all of you who have showed up today and I hope to see all of you in London this Saturday for our next Ceasefire Now march!


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