SFoP welcomes Goldstone Report

SFoP Press Release: Scottish Friends of Palestine welcomes the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to endorse the Goldstone Report on the savage Israeli onslaught on Gaza. While the endorsement could and should have been stronger, it is none the less welcome. Most unwelcome is the contribution from Britain which did not even exercise her vote.

Here the message seems to be - try and save face by being a participant at this twelfth session of the Council but do not offend Israel by voting in favour of a Report which, internationally, has been widely commended.

We particularly welcome the inclusion, by the Council, of the recent provocative and violent acts by the state of Israel, the occupying power, in East Jerusalem. Denial of freedom of worship, attacks on worshippers, the demolition of houses, would in most circumstances and settings merit attention of the global media. Not so, it would seem, when the victims are merely Palestinian.

We do have strong reservations with regard to the sense of parity between the military occupier and the occupied which the Goldstone Report generates and which the Council seems to accept.

With the state of Israel having a history of total denial when it comes to the rights of the Palestinian people, we would urge that only the conclusions of truly independent enquiries are accepted.

Given the emphasis placed by the Report on the futile launching of "missiles" by the beleaguered would-be defenders of an occupied people, Scottish Friends of Palestine reflect on one small part of the history of the continuing Zionist colonisation of the land of Palestine. In 1948 one favoured tactic of the Zionist terrorist groups was the use of the home made Davidka (little David) mortar. With fins designed to produce a frightening noise as this missile hurled towards its target, the purpose was as much to terrorise as to kill or maim. The use of this relatively indiscriminate weapon of war against the civilian population of Haifa, in 1948, never did receive the condemnation which its Palestinian counterpart receives today. However, it was certainly more effective with its unresolved consequences continuing to resonate throughout the world.

Scottish Friends of Palestine is a firm advocate of the total boycott of all Israeli institutions, academic and cultural bodies and Israeli products - until as such times that the Israeli state ceases to boycott the rights of the Palestinian people, and international law as it pertains to the Palestinian people. Visit www.easi-piesi.org to find out what you can do.

Scottish Friends of Palestine was formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent attacks on the Palestinian refugee communities. It is an independent organisation with no political or religious affiliations. SFoP supports the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. These rights have all been acknowledged by the United Nations.
SFoP campaigns for immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all territories illegally occupied, including East Jerusalem. We work for educational, social and cultural links between the Scottish and Palestinian peoples.