URGENT: MEPs to discuss Goldstone Report on 10 March - please email your Members of European Parliament
The European Parliament is due to vote on its attitude to the Goldstone Report on March 10.
Please URGENTLY email your MEPs - if possible by the end of today. Use www.writetothem.com to email all your MEPs directly. Remind them of Justice Goldstone's words in his report to the UN - every time a report is published and no action follows, this 'emboldens Israel and her conviction of being untouchable'.
Please ask your MEPs to support the:
1. Immediate and full implementation of the Goldstone Report, and demand accountability for all violations of international law committed by Israel in its war on Gaza;
2. Unconditional, immediate and sustained opening of the crossings into Gaza, including from the sea. Official visitors from EU countries, including the new High Representative Catherine Ashton, should routinely include Gaza when visiting the region, to see the devastating effects of the two and a half year old blockade of Gaza and Operation Cast Lead;
3. Removal of Hamas from the EU terrorist list. Ex-US President Jimmy Carter asked President Obama in 2009 to remove Hamas from the US' terrorist list. Palestinians elected their parliamentary representatives in elections declared free and fair by the international observers. The collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, which was severely tightened after the parliamentary election, is inhumane and illegal and must end;
4. Ending of the Israeli government's obstruction of the work of Human Rights organisations and NGOs in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Further information:
1. The resolutions tabled so far are at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sed/agenda.do?offLang=en&sessionDate=20100310..
2. The Goldstone report found that Israel had employed a policy that involved 'the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians; that Israel had used weapons proscribed by international law; that the Israeli military carried out a 'deliberate and sustained' attack upon civilian targets such as private homes, food installations and water treatment works; and that 'the Mission is of the view that some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed' in Israel's continued implementation of a blockade upon Gaza.
The Goldstone report also noted 'that the international community has been largely silent and has to date failed to act to ensure the protection of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and generally the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Suffice it to notice the lack of adequate reaction to the blockade and its consequences, to the Gaza military operations and, in their aftermath, to the continuing obstacles for reconstruction'.
For the text of the Goldstone Report, visit http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
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