Quakers urge Keir Starmer to act on genocide underway in Gaza
Quakers in Britain has written to the UK government, stating their belief that genocide is underway in Gaza and reiterating the call for an immediate ban on all arms sales to Israel.
Last month Quakers became the first British church to state their belief that genocide is underway in Gaza.
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We speak out in the hope that the UK government now takes decisive action to stop the genocide
- Paul Parker
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Now Recording Clerk Paul Parker has written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlining the urgent moral and legal imperative for the UK government to act.
“Our long history of witness and peace work in Palestine and Israel gives us particular experience from which to speak on this issue, and we do not use the word genocide lightly," he wrote.
“We have watched with horror as the Israeli government has deepened its collective punishment of Palestinians for the heinous, unjustified crimes of Hamas on 7 October 2023."
The letter called on the UK government to undertake seven steps including suspending the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement and passing urgent legislation to ban all UK trade with and investments in Israeli settlements.
The government should also recognise the state of Palestine and “challenge all attempts to encourage and implement the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and annexation of Palestinian land," it said.
The letter draws attention to the deliberate mass starvation of Palestinians, and the dismantling of life-sustaining systems, alongside the forced movement of Palestinians and a stated intention to expel them from Gaza.
“Central to Quakerism is the experience that there is that of God in everyone," Parker wrote.
“From this belief," he continued, “we speak out in the hope that the UK government now takes decisive action to stop the genocide and towards a lasting peace for all Israelis and Palestinians."
Letters were also sent to the Foreign Secretary, Secretary for Defence, and Secretary for Business and Trade.