TEXT VERSION
PSC welcomes the ceasefire called last night after 11 days of airstrikes on Gaza that have left at least 232 dead, including 65 children, entire families wiped out and over 1000 wounded. Many have lost limbs, homes, businesses, and schools.
Today, the people of Gaza wake up resilient but still facing life under a siege now in its 15th year that entraps them, denies the right to build free lives, and obstructs the development of a thriving society.
Today Palestinians wake up in Sheikh Jarrah resilient, but still facing forced displacement from homes they have lived in for decades.
Today in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinians wake up resilient but still living under an illegal and brutal military occupation enforced each day by soldiers who curtail their freedom of movement, deny them access to their lands, demolish their homes, and if they protest take them and their children into military custody where they face torture.
Today Palestinians who live as citizens of the state of Israel wake up resilient but still subject to a barrage of laws that privilege the rights of Jewish citizens above theirs and subject to violent attacks upon the streets of their towns.
And the vast majority of Palestinians, the descendants of those expelled from their homeland in 1948, wake up across the world still living in exile denied their inalienable right to return to their homeland.
We salute the resilience and sumud of all Palestinians confronting this ongoing injustice. But what they need from us is action.
There must be no acceptance of this status quo just because the bombs are no longer falling on Gaza. Tomorrow, we will march in our thousands in London to deliver the message that the complicit of our Government, our political leaders, our public bodies and our corporations with this system of apartheid must end.
The international community has welcomed the ceasefire as it did following previous Israeli wars on Gaza. However, the time for words and empty promises that there will be no more wars on Gaza is over. It must now act to deliver on the rights of the Palestinian people.
PSC calls for an end to the arms Trade with Israel, an end to all trade that supports violations of international law, and an end to investment in companies supporting this illegality.
The protest and the ongoing campaign does not end here. It continues until the Palestinian people enjoy what is their birth right; freedom justice and equality in their historic homeland.
Free Palestine.