Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Western Sahara Campaign and War on Want condemn recent moves by the Israeli government to officially endorse Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara.
Both the Palestinian and Saharawi people have endured decades of illegal occupation, forced exile and brutal violence by regimes attempting to repress their just struggles for freedom and self-determination.
The current strengthening of ties between Israel and Morocco is a grotesque example of how authoritarian regimes stand together. Israel’s ‘recognition’ of Morocco’s occupation of the land and people of Western Sahara reflects its own settler-colonial occupation, but also must be seen in the context of its deadly arms industry. The ties between these two states shows Israel’s development of a growing market for its armed drones and other weapons of repression, used to attack Palestinian and Saharawi communities alike.
For too long, Britain has shirked its responsibility to uphold international law and protect the rights of the Palestinian and Saharawi people, including their respective right to self-determination. Adding insult to injury, the British state continues to allow companies to do business with illegal settlements in both occupied Western Sahara and occupied Palestine, lending support for an illegal situation classified as a war crime under international law.
Any British government taking seriously the importance of international law would immediately ban trade in illegal settlement goods as a first step to supporting the self-determination of the Palestinian and Saharawi people.
Further to this, PSC, Western Sahara Campaign and War on Want condemn the British government’s proposed ‘anti-boycott’ bill which, if passed, will further compromise the rights of the Palestinian and Saharawi people to achieve their inalienable rights, and significantly stifle international solidarity with them and their struggles, by attempting to prevent public bodies from cutting ties with companies proven to be involved in the violation of their rights.
While autocrats collude in an attempt to maintain their regimes of oppression – we will continue to find strength in our joint struggle and respond to the call of the Palestinian and Saharawi people to build our effective and principled solidarity for a world free from colonial walls, occupying militaries and forced exile.