'You do not speak for us' – Dudley's Palestine Solidarity Group responds to Lord Austin's Israel stance
Dudley Palestine Solidarity Group today told Lord Austin of Dudley he does not speak for the borough concerning the war in Gaza.
The group have responded to Lord Austin's statements and article about what has happened after Hamas attacked civilians seven weeks ago and the response by the Israel Government.
Lord Austin said: "In the face of all that, Israel doesn’t just have the right but a duty to defend its citizens, rescue the hostages and deal with the terrorists."
However, i a statement to the Express & Star DPSG said: "Ian Austin’s recent post appears to be a blatant endorsement of the actions being carried out by the Israeli state on Palestinians in Gaza.
"His protestations that he meant ‘destroy Hamas’ ring hollow when he can find no words to condemn the indiscriminate slaughter, we see on our TV screens every day.
"Estimates of Palestinian dead in Gaza now exceed 11,000, almost half of these are children. Thousands more are wounded and millions made homeless. The main towns of the Gaza strip have been reduced to rubble. Israel is the fourth biggest armed force in the world and has a level of sophistication second to none. They do not need to inflict such horror on the Gaza population to root out Hamas, but they choose to do so because they want the Palestinians to leave."
Lord Austin was Labour MP for Dudley North from 2005 until he quit in February 2019 over the party's failure to deal with anti-Semitism. His father fled the Holocaust as a ten-year-old.
The group added: "We state categorically that if anyone has a right to resist, it is the Palestinians who have been systematically, robbed of their country, beginning in 1948 and continuing through the decades to now.
"It is inconceivable that any lasting ’peace’ can be achieved while occupation, oppression and apartheid remain a central feature of the Israeli project."
The group said: "A solution where Jews, Christians and Muslims live harmoniously side by side, a situation which existed in Palestine before 1945, is what is required.
"‘From the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ is not a call for the elimination of the Israeli Jews but a demand that all who live in Palestine/ Israel have equal rights."
