A Plea for Humanity
My speeches on the 21st October 2023 asking our Government of Jersey to call for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid and negotiations for an honest and just peace based on moral principles and international law
I have spent so much time thinking about what I should I say today and in all honesty, I feel paralysed by grief at the state of the world, I believe many will feel similarly. There is one thing I wanted to achieve in my lifetime, and that was, that when I took my final breaths, to know that I did everything I could as one flawed, ordinary human being, to make a positive difference in the world, it is for this reason that I stand here today.
Some may say that it is naïve of me, but I refuse to believe that humans cannot find a better way forward, where we finally learn the lessons of history and end our tribalism, our cycles of violence and war that tear our communities apart and debase us as a society. That we can expand our hearts and consciousness enough to understand that we are all connected and that when we dehumanise any group, we demean ourselves. Some see such ideals as weakness, as a refusal to admit to ourselves the true nature of humans, I disagree, it takes courage, strength and endurance to not give in to fear, to not give in to hate, to make a conscious decision to hold on to hope and the belief that we can and must do better.
On Saturday, October 7th, a massacre of Israeli citizens was carried out by Hamas militant fighters, our hearts should be big enough to understand the impact of this horror on the community, the grief they will be experiencing, our compassion should be able to extend towards them, so they feel held and know we do not belittle their loss and rather mourn as human brothers and sisters, the senseless loss of life. We know that there will be members of our community impacted by this and we should reach out our arms and embrace them at this difficult time.
However, as an island community we need to find the courage to understand that context is everything and that this horrific event took place in a much bigger story, a story that has been suppressed by our mainstream media and by our leaders and that story is about 8 decades of brutalisation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. That is not to justify the heinous act and the loss of civilian lives, we should mourn each and every one lost, but we also need to be honest, as this is the only way that we can have a hope of moving towards a just peace, where both Palestinians and Israelis can live a life of dignity.
As we witness Israel, with the full and unconditional support, including financially and militarily, of not just the US government and the West generally, but our national government, pulverising Gaza, which has been under a military siege for 16years, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, where half the population are under the age of 18, do we honestly believe that this will make Israelis safe? As they bomb hospitals, churches, mosques, schools, civilian tower blocks, do we really feel that this in anyway can be justified and called “defence”? And what about the people in the West Bank, where there is no Hamas, who are occupied and subject to what numerous international and Israeli human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’tselem call Apartheid, do they not have the right to defend themselves and resist?
At 4:30pm yesterday, I saw Defense for Children International state the latest figures for the children that have been killed since the assault commenced, 1661, I couldn’t bring myself to check the numbers this morning. That is just the children. Who will be safer now those children are dead? These are the hard questions we need to ask ourselves again and again.
The Israeli ambassador in a recent interview with Talk TV said that Israel may kill 600k civilians and stated that it would be “worth it” and made the comparison to the UKs bombing of cities in Germany during the war in order to defeat the Nazis. Think about this comparison. Palestine has no army, they have some poorly armed resistance fighters, Israel is one of the most well-equipped armies in the world and supported by the US government to the sum of $3.8 billion a year. We cannot really believe that this is a nation defending itself, it’s a government undertaking a vengeful massacre of civilians and what will the consequences be? Do they think they can erase every Palestinian? Do they think people will forget what was done to them? Do we think as our own governments support this, that there will be no consequence for us? How should we respond to this?
I will cover later what I feel as islanders of conscience we should do, but now I want to do what I think it is imperative we all do, and that is centre Palestinian and Israeli voices and members of the Jewish community who are rarely heard in our media and who are denigrated when they are granted an interview. So, I will be reading out statements sent to me by individuals from those communities who wanted their voices heard today, I shall also be playing a recording from a former helicopter pilot for the Israeli army, Yonatan Shapira. But firstly, I have the huge privilege of passing the microphone to my friend and journalist, Yousef Alehou from the Gaza strip.
***************************************************************************
Before I speak next, I would like us to have a moment of silence to remember every victim of this conflict.
So we have heard the communities speak and how should we respond?
We have to be honest and courageous enough to understand that the only way this cycle of violence will end and give way to a journey of healing for both communities, is for a just peace to be negotiated based on moral principles and those enshrined in international law that guarantees freedom, justice, equality and a life of dignity for all peoples, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Israel must end its apartheid and occupation of the Palestinian people, if we cannot recognise this, then we are not truly committed to justice. With that in mind, it is my view is that we must demand this day that our government call on the UK government, who are responsible for our foreign policy, to push for an immediate ceasefire, to allow humanitarian aid to continue into Gaza and to support negotiations for a just peace. We have fliers with us that provides you with contacts for our Chief Minister and suggests other ways you might like to support the humanitarian response.
We should always keep in mind that history will judge us not on whether we were sad that civilian lives were lost, but on what we did in response.
I did not come here today to protest, I have done that so many times before, I have come instead to appeal to the moral conscience of our government and island community to do everything within their power to bring a just peace, to recognise that it is not okay for any people to be dehumanised, to be erased not Jews, not Palestinians, not anyone.
Thank you.
