Sixty-four public figures, including seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, have called for an international arms embargo on Israel for its “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” in Gaza. The statement came in a letter published in Britain’s The Guardian on Friday.
“Israel has once again unleashed the full force of its military against the captive Palestinian population, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip, in an inhumane and illegal act of military aggression. Israel’s ability to launch such devastating attacks with impunity largely stems from the vast international military cooperation and trade that it maintains with complicit governments across the world,” read the statement.
“We call on the UN and governments across the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid,” the letter concluded.
Among the signators were Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Jody Williams, Adolfo Peres Esquivel, Mairead Maguire and Rigoberto Menchu.
Also signing were academics Noam Chomsky and Rashid Khalidi, filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, musicians Roger Waters and Brian Eno, writers Alice Walker and Caryl Churchill, and journalists John Pilger and Chris Hedges. Two Israelis, academics Ilan Pappe and Nurit Peled, signed the letter as well.–Haartez
I read the names of the signatories of this letter with great interest, and noticed that one name was missing in this letter: Nobel Peace Laureate and former USA President Jimmy Cater. He was a strong supporter of the Palestinians until the powerful Jewish Lobbies, led by the AIPAC, successfully forced him to stop criticizing Israel. As the letter states so clearly and correctly, that Israel’s strong trade ties with the Western nations has enabled it to perpetuate its occupation of Palestine; and the strong support of the Western nations, especially the USA, has given Israel a sort of impunity. The Indian government has been standing by Israel lately, because it, too, has strong trade ties with Israel, and buys military weapons worth billions of dollars every year; and so it does not wish to displease Netanyahu. But I hope that in the Land of the Mahabharata where the Pandavas and Kauravas fought the epic battle in Kurukshetra, wisdom will finally prevail, and that India will do the right, moral and just thing, and stand with the oppressed and the subjugated Palestinians. Mahatma Gandhi would have supported the Palestinians now, if he were alive.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania