Latest News & Updates

Letter delivered to west Belfast businesses

A Chara,

As you are probably aware, the turn of the year marked the first anniversary of the Israeli government’s vicious onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

During this assault, close to 1,400 Palestinians lost their lives, the vast majority of them civilians. No regard for human life was shown by the Israeli occupation forces during the Gaza assault; ambulances were blown up, rockets smashed into residential buildings, UN food stores were incinerated and an array of deadly weaponry, including white phosphorous, was used on a nearly defenceless population. Ordinary men, women and children paid the price with their lives.

However, this savage bombing campaign against the people of Gaza represented just the pinnacle of Israel’s racist, colonialist policies against the Palestinian population.

The ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip has left the population without basic medicines, foodstuffs and materials for reconstruction.

Israel is in the latter stages of building a wall around the West Bank and Gaza, reminiscent of that which surrounded the Warsaw ghetto, that will divide families and cut off Palestinian farmers from their land – this wall has been condemned by the United Nations.

There are currently over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including children and elected representatives, in Israeli jails.

Since 1967, Israel has demolished over 18,000 Palestinian homes, leaving 100,000 people without shelter.

Palestinians are more than four times as likely to be unemployed than Israelis, while Palestinians living inside the Israeli state face routine discrimination.

These are just some the facts that mark out Israel as a racist apartheid state. This has been acknowledged by head of the United Nations Father Miguel D’escoto Brockmann, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and former US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

The people of west Belfast have a long and honourable record of providing practical solidarity to the people of Palestine. This has included the boycotting of Israeli products by local businesses.

The boycott of Israeli goods is an international campaign, supported by 180 organisations that are representative of a broad section of Palestinian society. The boycott is supported by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and is similar to the one that played a key role in bringing down the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Accordingly, we are requesting that your store immediately undertakes a review of the products it stocks with a view to ensuring that no Israeli goods are on sale in west Belfast.

Alternatives to all Israeli products can be easily sourced and will result in little to no inconvenience to customers, staff and management. Given the appalling human rights situation in Palestine, the boycott of Israeli goods is a small, morally necessary step that can be taken by all local businesses.

We await your prompt reply.

Click here to return to the story. >>