Open Letter to The Foreign Secretary 

Lewisham Islamic Centre welcomes the announcement by the UK Government finally restricting trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. We further welcome the fact that several other Western countries have followed suit in line with global public opinion.

We are pleased to see the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office finally adopting something of the much-mooted ethical foreign policy that your immediate predecessors had failed to advance.

For too long, Palestinians have endured occupation, settlement expansion, settler violence, displacement and the denial of their fundamental rights. These measures are a welcome step towards ensuring that the UK does not stand by while further suffering is inflicted on Palestinian families and communities.

Restricting trade with illegal settlements is an important step, but it cannot be the final one. If the UK Government is serious about international law, human rights and an enduring peace, it must be prepared to take further meaningful action to end the occupation, halt settlement expansion, protect Palestinian civilians and hold those responsible for violations to account, including pursuing British nationals with dual citizenship who have participated in the genocide in Gaza.

Britain has a particular historical responsibility. The Balfour Declaration and Britain’s role in administering Palestine during the Mandate were instrumental in shaping the circumstances in which the State of Israel was established, while the Palestinian people were denied an equal say over their own future. Britain helped shape this history. It is only right that Britain now works to help undo the injustice it helped create.

We world stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and above all, with the children and families who continue to suffer in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

We pray for peace, justice and freedom for Palestine and its eternal capital, Quds.