at_deportie

LATEST NEWS:

UK Government factsheet shows clear bias towards Israel

Friday, 08 January 2010 16:25

The Government’s Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU) has issued a factsheet concerning the skirmishes between the Viva Palestina convoy, carrying aid and equipment to the beleaguered people of Gaza, and the Egyptian police patrolling Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.

The clashes, written about by Seumas Milne in his column yesterday, has prompted RICU to issue the following advice:

‘Any medical and other essential specialist staff seeking to access Gaza should co-ordinate their entry to Gaza with the major international humanitarian organisations already on the ground.’

The advice seems rather unhelpful given the report issued by international humanitarian organisations last month, ‘Failing Gaza’, which shows the degree to which even these organisations are consistently obstructed from delivering essential reconstruction aid to the people of Gaza.

The RICU factsheet continues:

‘The UK Government has already pledged nearly £47 million of humanitarian aid to these international humanitarian organisations since the start of the conflict.

‘The Government has also made clear repeatedly to the Israeli government that it is unacceptable that Israel continues to prevent aid from reaching those who so badly need it in Gaza. EU Foreign Ministers reinforced our call for full humanitarian access in December.’

But as the charities and Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, have already argued, protestations to the Israeli government have been nothing short of feeble.

‘…what has the British government and the international community done to lift the blockade? Next to nothing. Tough-sounding declarations are issued at regular intervals but little real pressure is applied’, Clegg wrote last month.

It seems the UK government is already clear, and biased, on who is to blame for the situation. The RICU factsheet states:

‘The suffering of Gazan people is compounded by the violent and irresponsible actions of Hamas.’

And what of the ‘violent and irresponsible’ actions of Israel and the efforts currently underway by the British government to exempt Israeli officials from facing arrest and prosecution for war crimes in the UK?

Does our Government accept that the people of Gaza should collectively pay for Israel’s refusal to accept that Hamas is the legitimate government and electoral choice of the people of Gaza? And if it does not, as it should not, what is it actually going to do about it short of issuing pitiful statements?

Comments

Add New

Illuminati - Viva Palestina

|2010-01-09 07:27:59

Full marks to all the courageous volunteers on the Viva Palestina convoy who have helped draw media attention to the continuing siege enforced on the Gazans by the Israeli and Egyptian governments. Also, well done to Engage for drawing attention to the two-faced UK government.