UK and Scottish Governments urged to push for end to Gaza blockade
That was condemned by human rights groups, including Amnesty International which said: "By forcibly intercepting and blocking the Madleen which was carrying humanitarian aid and a crew of solidarity activists, Israel has once again flouted its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip and demonstrated its chilling contempt for legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.
Read More:
'The operation carried out in the middle of the night and in international waters violates international law and put the safety of those on the boat at risk.
"The crew were unarmed activists and human rights defenders on a humanitarian mission, they must be released immediately and unconditionally. They must also be protected from torture and other ill-treatment pending their release."
The blockade itself is considered illegal by many human rights groups and others, who argue it amounts to collective punishment.
In 2012, 50 international aid agencies, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Oxfam, released a statement calling on Israel to lift its siege and blockade; while in 2016 the UN Special Rapporteur described the blockade as "contrary to international law".
Following the interception of the Madleen, fresh calls have been made for both Westminster and Holyrood to push Israel to lift the blockade.
Gerry Coutts of Scotland for Palestine said: 'The aid boat was seized by Israel while it sailed in international waters under the British flag and its unarmed crew have been detained. Yet, we have heard no condemnation of this from our governments in the UK.
'The abduction of the crew, the seizing of the boat, the occupation of Palestine, the mass starvation of a people and the siege and blockade are all illegal - and happening in plain sight.
'Both our governments have a legal and moral duty to push their ally, Israel, to allow in life-saving aid to starving Palestinians. They must also push for an end to the cruel siege and naval blockade and more recently a complete blockade imposed on Palestinians.'
A spokesperson for Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card said: 'For months we have marched on the streets and have written to our politicians to put their words into action to help end the plight of Palestinians.
"We are once again calling on our governments in Westminster and Holyrood to do the right thing and push for an end to Israel's unlawful siege and blockade of Gaza and ensure the safety of the brave people trying to deliver aid.'
Wael Shawish of the Scottish Palestinian Society said: 'The UK has a historic and current responsibility to Palestine.
"At the height of one of the worst humanitarian crises ever, it must find the moral courage to stand up to Israel and use its leverage to help end the Israeli siege and blockade, protect those delivering humanitarian aid and bring lasting peace by pushing for an end to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.'
The Scottish Government and the UK Government have been contacted for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
32 minutes ago
- Sky News
Israel announces plans for new West Bank settlement to 'bury' idea of Palestinian state
Israel's far-right finance minister has announced plans to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which he said would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state. Palestinians and rights groups said the settlement would effectively cut the West Bank into two separate parts and rob them of any chance to build a Palestinian state. This comes as several countries, including the UK, said they would recognise a Palestinian state in September, unless Israel meets several conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza. "This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise," finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said as he announced the construction plans. "Anyone in the world who tries today to recognise a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground." The settlement is planned to be built in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, and includes around 3,500 apartments to expand the existing settlement of Maale Adumim, Mr Smotrich said. E1 has been eyed for Israeli development for more than two decades, but plans were halted due to pressure from the US during previous administrations. Now-US President Donald Trump and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, were praised on Thursday by Mr Smotrich as "true friends of Israel as we have never had before". Mr Smotrich, himself a Jewish settler, told Sky News' international correspondent Diana Magnay that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Trump had agreed to the revival of the E1 scheme. There was no confirmation of this claim from either leader. The E1 plan has not yet received its final approval, which is expected next week. 0:56 Construction of homes 'within a year' Peace Now, which tracks settlement activity in the West Bank, said some bureaucratic steps remain before construction could begin, including the approval of Israel's high planning council. But if the process moves quickly, infrastructure work could start in the next few months, with the construction of homes to follow in about a year. "The E1 plan is deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution. We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed," Peace Now said in a statement. It added that the plan was "guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed". Mr Smotrich was also criticised by an Israeli rights group established by former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers, who accused the far-right politician of encouraging West Bank settlement activity while the world's attention was on the Gaza war. As well as official, government-approved settlements, there are also Israeli outposts, which are established without government approval and are considered illegal by Israeli authorities. But reports suggest the government often turns a blind eye to their creation. In May, Mr Netanyahu's government approved 22 new settlements, including the legalisation of outposts that had previously been built without authorisation. Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 and Israel's subsequent military bombardment of Gaza, more than 100 Israeli outposts have been established, according to Peace Now. Settler violence against Palestinians has also increased, according to the UN, with an average of 118 incidents each month - up from 108 in 2023, which was already a record year. Trump's ambassador denying existence of the West Bank 'all the encouragement' Smotrich needs Bezalel Smotrich is pumped. His dreams of resettlement and annexation of the West Bank have never been closer to fruition. The E1 settlement plan, which would cut the West Bank from East Jerusalem, was first conceived back in 1995 by then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Thirty years later, the extremist settler contingent within the government seems to be on the verge of making it a reality. The prime minister's office has yet to confirm Benjamin Netanyahu's backing, but according to Smotrich, both he and President Trump are on board. E1 (or T1 as they say they will call it, in honour of Donald Trump) would be another symbolic blow to the very notion of Palestinian statehood, as is every settlement and piece of related infrastructure which Israel builds in the occupied West Bank. At a time when the UK, France and others all say they will recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel pushes for a ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu's government is doubling down. Per Smotrich, their response will come through roads, buildings, neighbourhoods, the spread of Jewish life across Palestinian lands in the West Bank - the creation of facts on the ground. The UK, France and many others in the international community may not like it, but the real power-broker here, certainly as far as Netanyahu is concerned, is Donald Trump. He is the president who moved the US embassy to Jerusalem; his ambassador has said there is no such thing as the West Bank. For the likes of Smotrich, that is all the encouragement they need. Plans criticised as 'extension of genocide' The Palestinian foreign ministry called the settlement plan an extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation. Israel has long disputed accusations of genocide and rights abuses, saying it is acting in self-defence. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian president's spokesperson, called on the US to pressure Israel to stop the building of settlements. Hamas said the plan was part of Israel's "colonial, extremist" policies and called on Palestinians to confront it. Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator between Hamas and Israel in a bid to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, said the move was a flagrant violation of international law. "The EU rejects any territorial change that is not part of a political agreement between involved parties. So annexation of territory is illegal under international law," European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said. Today, an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There is also a growing movement of Israelis wanting to build settlements in Gaza. Settlers make up around 5% of Israel's population and 15% of the West Bank's population, according to data from Peace Now. Settlements are illegal under international law and have been condemned by the UN. They are, however, authorised by the Israeli government. According to the Israel Policy Forum, the settlement programme is intended to protect Israel's security, with settlers acting as the first line of defence "against an invasion". Mr Smotrich's settlement announcement comes after the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Mr Smotrich and his fellow far-right cabinet member, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for "repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian civilians" in the West Bank. 4:33 Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in June that the ministers had been "encouraging egregious abuses of human rights" for "months". Last year, Mr Smotrich, whose National Religious Party largely draws its support from settlers, ordered preparations for the annexation of the West Bank. His popularity has fallen in recent months, with polls showing that his party would not win a single seat in parliament in elections were held today.
ITV News
32 minutes ago
- ITV News
Israel announces West Bank settlement that will 'bury' idea of Palestinian statehood
Israel is developing plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, in a move that would 'permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state', Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said. The E1 settlement project, which seeks to connect Jerusalem to the settlement of Maale Adumim and essentially split the West Bank in two, would effectively make it impossible to create a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. The announcement comes as an increasing number of countries, including the UK, France and Canada, are announcing they would recognise a Palestinian state from September. Smotrich presented the advances in the project as Israel's response to those announcements. The project has been in the works for two decades, but progress has been frozen due to strong international opposition. Smitroch announced on Thursday that approval for 3,401 new houses was currently pending, with final approval expected next week. He was speaking at press conference held at a planned construction site. 'They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality,' Smotrich said. 'This reality is what will permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise.' He has repeatedly lobbied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory. Palestinian officials were quick to criticise the plans. In a statement, the presidency of the Palestinian National Council described them as a 'systemic plan to steal land, Judaize it, and impose biblical and Talmudic facts on the conflict'. Palestinian Speaker Rawhi Fattouh said the 'colonial plan falls within the policy of creeping annexation' of the West Bank, which is accompanied by settler violence against Palestinians. Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now described the E1 plan as 'deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution'. All petitions to stop the construction were rejected by the planning committee on August 6. Palestinians in the West Bank Israel's plans for construction in the West Bank are contributing to increasingly difficult circumstances for Palestinians living in the West Bank as much of the focus is instead on Gaza, around 40 kilometres away from the occupied territory. Attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased since October 7, 2023, while evictions from towns and an increased number of checkpoints have made life harder for those living there. More than 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. Would this be legal? Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. But during the first Trump administration, the State Department reversed longstanding US policy and ruled settlements were 'not inconsistent' with international law. The Biden administration left this new policy in place. Could other countries take in displaced Palestinians? Prime Minister Netanyahu has said there are talks underway with a number of countries about taking in Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza. South Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Libya and Indonesia are all involved in those talks, according to a senior Israeli official who spoke to ITV News' American partner CNN. In exchange for taking in some of Gaza's population of more than two million people, the official said the countries are looking for 'significant financial and international compensation'. But the countries have not individually confirmed what part they could play. On Wednesday, South Sudan rejected a report that it was in discussions about the resettlement of Palestinians, saying in a statement the reports were 'baseless and do not reflect the official position' of the country. Somaliland also said there were no such talks earlier in the year. Last week Indonesia said it was ready to take in 2,000 Palestinians from Gaza for treatment but that they would return to Gaza once they recovered. Netanyahu has never given a detailed vision of what will happen to Gaza after the war but has repeatedly advocated for resettling displaced Palestinians in other countries, particularly after President Donald Trump floated the idea in January.
Daily Mirror
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Donald Trump explains how the world will know if his meeting with Putin has failed
The US President will host the Russian dictator in Alaska tomorrow for talks on ending the war in Ukraine - but he says there is a 25% chance that the summit will fail Donald Trump has revealed how the world will know whether his meeting with Vladimir Putin has been a failure. The US President will host the Russian dictator in Alaska tomorrow for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. But he told Fox News Radio today there was a 25% chance that the summit would be a failure. "If it's a bad meeting, I'm not calling anybody. I'm going home," he told host Brian Kilmeade. "But if it's a good meeting, I'm going to call President Zelensky and the European leaders." It comes after Keir Starmer gave Volodymyr Zelensky a special greeting in the UK. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to confirm there would be a joint press conference at the end of the summit. But Trump wasn't so sure. "I'm going to have a press conference. I don't know if it's going to be a joint. We haven't even discussed it. I think it might be nice to have a joint, and then separates." And he said that if the first meeting is a success, a second would follow to include Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky - and potentially very soon. He said he would immediately call Zelensky if the meeting goes well, to "get him over to wherever we are going to meet." "We have an idea of three different locations," he said, adding "including the possibility, because it would be by far the easiest, of staying in Alaska." He added: "There is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting, in which case I will [return to] run the country and we have made America great again already in six months." Earlier, Putin praised Trump's efforts to secure an end to the conflict, saying his administration was making "quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities" and to "reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved." Get Donald Trump updates straight to your WhatsApp! Keir Starmer welcomed Mr Zelensky to No10 Downing Street today in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before the critical Trump-Putin meeting. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer's offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments, and Zelensky departed about an hour later.
