December 29, 2009
12:00 pm	to	2:00 pm

The Oban Concern for Palestine Group is arranging a vigil and petition in support of the people of Gaza.

This will take place on Tuesday 29th December between 12 Noon and 2.00pm at the Clock Tower in Station Square in the town.

The group would be delighted to see as much support as possible.

It is now a year since the atrocity of the blockade of Gaza.

It is also a year since one Tony Blair, Special Middle East Envoy -  a position more honoured in the lobbying to get it than in the effort put in since – didn’t bother to cancel his holiday to get to Gaza and start doing what he could.

This was a pragmatic recognition from the man himself that he knew he lacked the credibility to do anything.

He is, though, happy to keep the title for the purposes of vanity and to let us pay for his vastly expensive accomodation in Jerusalem and the the size of entourage that helps him, in David Milliband’s characteristically lightweight words, ‘to stop the traffic with his motorcade’.

The petition which the Concern for Palestine Group will send to Prime Minsiter, Gordon Brown says:

To the Prime Minister, the Right Hon Gordon Brown, 10 Downing Street.

‘A year ago a vigil was held in Oban during the onslaught on Gaza by the Israeli Army, in which over 1,400 Palestinians died, many of them civilians and over half of them children. We now know that ‘Operation Cast Lead’ included the illegal use of white phosphorus bombs in built-up areas. At the time, we, ordinary people of Argyll and Bute, baffled and distressed by the events that we were hearing of and seeing daily on the national news, sent you a petition, with 118 signatures. We asked then that the British Government take these steps, as a matter of extreme urgency:

• the reinstatement of the arms embargo upon Israel;
• the suspension of the European Union Trade Agreement with Israel until such time that it ends its occupation of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip;
• a full and public UN investigation into accusations that Israel has committed war crimes during its invasion of Gaza.

‘Our letter was acknowledged by your office, and passed on to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from which we have had no real response.

‘In the year since then, we have seen a cease-fire, but also Israel’s continuing siege of Gaza which has left its trapped population with severely restricted access to food, medical supplies and clean drinking water. Since steel and concrete are not allowed into Gaza, its people are unable to rebuild the 8,000 homes that were destroyed during the Israeli attacks, or to repair their devastated infrastructure.

‘We have seen faltering peace talks in which Britain has taken no significant role.
We have seen the painstaking work of the Goldstone Commission, its Report and proposals, on which the British delegation did not even vote at the United Nations.

‘We call on the UK government, under your leadership, to exert international pressure to implement the recommendations of the Goldstone Report, which include investigating alleged war crimes committed during the three week assault and immediately ending the inhumane siege of Gaza.’

We will shortly bring you information on how to sign this petition.

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