Pontypridd Labour MP continues to back Israel despite genocide trial.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign also targets Israeli products in Cardiff Lidl as action escalates.
Pro-Palestine protesters to unite with Sudan campaigners for Cardiff march.
Members of Rhondda Cynon Taff Palestine Solidarity Campaign (RCTPSC) took their call for peace and justice in Gaza to the streets of Pontypridd at the end of March– and to the office of Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones.
Davies-Jones is a prominent member of the group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), which aims to build ‘solidarity’ with the state even after its military has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, in the space of just 6 months in Gaza.
In February last year, Davies-Jones was one of just six Labour MPs to join a special LFI delegation to Israel, where the group declared that the country could ‘rely’ on Labour for support despite the apartheid conditions upheld by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The LFI delegation that Davies-Jones was on met Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Herzog, even gifting him a book signed by Labour leader Keir Starmer. Herzog has been specifically sighted by the International Court of Justice for using language that could be considered genocidal after he said on October 12th that Palestinians were “an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true.”
Ales Davies-Jones has so far not sought to distance herself from Herzog’s comments nor condemn them. Instead she used a question in Parliament in January to attack pro-Palestinian protesters campaigning for a ceasefire. Jones asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak if he would “join me in condemning the shameful pro-Houthi chanting that we saw at many protests in the UK over the weekend?”
This was in response to some protesters cheering Houthi forces after they blocked Israeli and Western ships in the Red Sea in protest at Israel’s deadly assault in Gaza, which experts have labelled as genocide.
The activists demonstrating outside Ms Davies-Jones’ constituency office pressed their case for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They sang songs for justice and engaged with passing members of the public, who they said recognised the human tragedy unfolding in Gaza and were supportive.
Mairead Canavan, of Rhondda PSC and leading National Education Union activist, said the event “brought together a group of young activists, many of whom were very keen to see local action and want our MPs to know how angry they are about their refusal to even correspond with their constituents on the subject.”
“A couple of local people were very pleased to see a local demo and came to join us. Many people stopped to watch and listen to what was going on,” she added.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Rhondda Cynon Taf is urging Alex Davies-Jones and all RCT MPs to exercise influence to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Just over a week ago, a video emerged of the remnants of a massacre at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza where 400 Palestinians, including patients and health workers, are understood to have been executed by the Israeli military.
Pro-Palestine protests, marches and vigils have been held throughout Wales since October last year, including weekly demonstrations in Cardiff every Saturday for 6 months.
Both Labour and Tory MPs have faced fierce opposition from local constituents in Wales, from Tory MP Stephen Crabb in Haverfordwest to Labour’s Jo Stevens in Cardiff and Sarah Atherton in Wrexham.
Most have tried to ignore the calls to break party line and demand a ceasefire but following the killing of six aid workers by Israel last week, including 3 British citizens, they are finding it harder to justify their stance.
Calls have also grown for the UK to suspend arms sales to Israel, even coming from the former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw and Tory grandee Alan Duncan.
Last week, members of the PCS union who work in the UK Government Department for Business and Trade threatened legal action, saying that the supply of UK weapons to Israel was illegal under international law.
PCS head of bargaining Paul O’Connor sighted the ICJ’s view that “some of the alleged acts by Israel in Gaza could potentially be considered within the provisions of the Genocide Convention.”
“PCS concurs with that view,” he said. “We believe that the UK government has an obligation to do all it can to halt the onslaught. As it does not appear to be willing to do so, we are seriously considering taking legal action to prevent our members from being forced to carry out unlawful acts.”
The direct action group Palestine Action have pursued a relentless campaign against British firms which supply the Israeli war machine, successful shutting down the notorious Elbit Systems in some it’s key locations. Next week, a group of Welsh Palestine Action activists are due to stand trial in Caernarfon, after disrupting production at a Wrexham factory supplying drone materials to Elbit Systems.
Pro-Israeli politicians in Wales were further taken to task on Saturday when children laid down empty pairs of shoes outside Cardiff central library – to highlight the unfathomable number of children killed by Israel in the space of six months.
On Thursday, activists with Cardiff Stop the War and Apartheid Free Zone Cardiff took direct action in a Lidl store in the city, against the firm’s decision to stock Israeli goods. Campaigners confiscated large quantities of Israel-linked products from the shelves and spoke to customers about the situation in Gaza and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
The Welsh capital has seen protests calling for a ceasefire every Saturday for the past 25 weeks and this coming weekend will unite with those campaigning for peace in Sudan. War has been raging in the country for the past year, with 9 million displaced and up to 100,000 people thought to have been killed. The March will begin on Saturday 12.30pm, Nye Bevan Statue, Cardiff Queen St.
Meanwhile in Rhyl, a coalition of groups will take part in a ‘North Wales march and rally for Gaza’ starting at Rhyl train station at 11.15am on Saturday.
