Thank you to the tens of thousands of you who took action urging MPs to publicly call for a total ban on settlement goods entering the UK. The volume of your response and the size of the movement have been incredible.
Now that the MPs are back from recess, it's time to continue our pressure on MPs to publicly call for a total ban on settlement goods. The UK has an obligation under international law to act. We need to continue reminding them.
If your MP replied saying they support a ban and have signed the EDM (Early Day Motion), then you can check their name here: EDM 1266: Import of goods from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
You can also reply thanking them, and asking them to go further using the email copy below:
Dear [MP name],
I am writing to say thank you for signing EDM 1266, which calls for a ban on importing Israeli settlement goods. Settlement goods legitimise and fuel Israeli war crimes and shouldn’t be available in the UK.
As well as being war crimes, Israel’s illegal settlements are a key pillar of its system of apartheid against Palestinians. That racist system of apartheid subjects all Palestinians to systematic discrimination and oppression throughout their lives. It is the system of apartheid which underpins the illegal blockade and siege of Gaza, the indiscriminate bombing and killing of thousands of civilians, the forced evictions and house demolitions, the restrictions on movement, the two-tier justice system, the arbitrary detention and torture. All these abuses and more are done not in isolation but as deliberate and systematic acts to control land and resources. This is apartheid – and the UK Parliament must catch up with the UK public (and Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organisations plus the International Court of Justice) and recognise this reality.
Will you:
1) Publicly mention Israel’s crime of apartheid in Parliament, for example by referencing that the International Court of Justice has found that Israel's legislation and measures breach the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid; or referencing Amnesty International’s detailed findings (www.amnesty.org.uk/genocide) that Israel is committing the crime against humanity of apartheid.
2) Write to the Foreign Secretary asking what the UK government’s response is to the International Court of Justice’s finding that Israel is in breach of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and Amnesty International’s finding that Israel is committing the crime against humanity of apartheid.
I look forward to your response.
Best wishes,
[Your name]
[Address Line 1]
[Postcode]