- Gaza has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
- Israel’s so-called pull-out from Gaza whereby settlers were relocated to the West Bank, still left Gaza completely under Israeli military control, its borders, waters, air space, population movement and economy at the mercy of Israel. Armed resistance is legal under international law in situations of military occupation. But Israel has made it clear it will suppress any form of resistance— armed or peaceful — and has refused to enter into dialogue with Hamas.
- Israel’s armed forces have killed both resistance fighters and large numbers of civilians. Hamas and other groups have retaliated with rockets that are relatively ineffective.
- From June 2004 to the end of January 2009, 21 people were killed in Israel by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
- In the same period, over 3000 Gazans, nearly a fifth of them children, have been killed by the Israeli army and air force.
- According to the Goldstone report of 2009 Israel’s attackson Gaza in 2008–2009 were “to a large degree aimed at destroying or incapacitating civilian property and the means of subsistence of the civilian population” and found the IDF guilty of “repeated failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians”. It has ‘imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip’.
For a full analysis of the situation in Gaza and the latest information on Israel’s murder of 9 Turkish activists on the aid flotilla to Gaza see the PSC factsheet on Gaza at: www.palestinecampaign.org
Click on information and choose factsheets from the dropdown menu
JOIN THE GAZA CAMPAIGN IN BRIGHTON
Smashedo
As well as the vigils, petitions, letter-writing street stalls and large protest marches at the time of ‘Operation Cast Lead’, on the night of the 16th January 2009, as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza, six activists broke into EDO MBM’s arms manufacturing facility on Home Farm Rd Brighton. For an hour they wreaked havoc with hammers. Filing cabinets and computers were hurled from top-floor window. The company have owned the rights to the main bomb rack used on Israeli F-16s – the VER-2 – since 1998.
After a 4 week trial at Hove Crown Court the ‘Decommissioners’ were found not guilty of conspiracy to cause criminal damage, using the defence of acting by necessity to prevent a greater crime. The jury saw extensive evidence of Israel’s crimes in Gaza, and EDO MBM’s complicity in their crimes was proved. The trial received international publicity and Israel’s war crimes were revived in the media.
Weekly noise demonstrations take place outside the factory.
For latest information and future plans see www.smashedo.org.uk
BHPSC
Please contact us to join in:
- Helping on street stalls to keep the Gaza issue in the public consciousness
- Fundraising for the convoys and flotillas to Gaza
- Political lobbying
- Media watch – challenging the media’s biased reporting on Gaza and Hamas
- Expanding the boycott of Israel in the wake of its escalating atrocities against Gaza
