Northern Lights: In solidarity with Abtisam Mohamed, and with all the people of Palestine

Members of Parliament gather with Yuan Yang (centre left) and Abtisam Mohamed (centre right) in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament, London, to show support for the two Labour MPs who were denied entry to Israel are on their way home to the UK. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

On Sunday 6 April news broke that two Labour MPs were detained and denied entry to Israel while on a visit to the illegally occupied West Bank.

The Members of Parliament—Yuan Yang, MP for Earley and Woodley; and Sheffield Central’s MP Abtisam Mohamed—formed part of a parliamentary delegation which planned to visit projects operated by humanitarian and development organisations in Palestine.

It is outrageous that the Israeli regime would prevent parliamentarians from observing the situation in occupied Palestine first-hand. Israeli representatives stated that the MPs were refused entry because they intended to ‘spread hate speech’, with the Israeli embassy in London said the MPs had ‘accessed Israel of false claims’. These claims are demonstrably untrue.

I stand in solidarity with both Yuan and Abtisam, for the concerning treatment they have experienced, and the slander that followed.

What this reveals is that the Israeli regime is doing all it can to prevent its crimes being exposed. Abtisam Mohamed said that the move was ‘about control and censorship’, and the state looking to be ‘beyond criticism.’ Deporting Members of Parliament and those seeking to bear witness are the actions of a pariah state with something to hide.

The world watched on in horror as Israel massacred over 50,000 people in Gaza, deliberately targeting journalists, doctors, and aid workers, and intentionally destroying Gaza’s schools, universities and hospitals. It has maintained its illegal blockade and restricted the flow of food, water and aid into Gaza, inflicting further death and destruction on the besieged population.

We hear a constant stream of atrocities coming through in Gaza and the West Bank. Earlier this month, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus in the West Bank and assassinated a 33-year-old man, Hamza Al-Khamash, inside his home. Local sources say that Israeli special forces surrounded his house and opened fire directly upon him, as part of a wider series of military raids on the West Bank to escalate unrest.

Sheffield City Council has recently extended a Declaration of Friendship with Nablus, setting out our support and solidarity with the people of Nablus, and our desire to build on the cultural and educational links that have developed between our two cities in recent years. This solidarity necessarily includes standing with people in Nablus against the apartheid system and racial violence they are being subjected to by the IDF and settlers.

If our MPs are denied access to visit the West Bank, denied permission even to bear witness to the events occurring, it raises concerns about how we can practically support our Palestinian siblings.

My family, on my father’s side, are South African Indians. They moved to South Africa from India in the early 1900s. At times like these I think of that other pariah state. Community solidarity and international isolation helped bring South Africa’s apartheid regime to an end with boycotts against South African goods, cultural boycotts against its sports teams, academics and companies; and with sanctions against Boer politicians.

In the 1980s Sheffield took a leading role in the UK’s anti-apartheid movement, leading calls for divesting from companies that supported South African apartheid, boycotting goods produced through apartheid labour, and bestowing upon Nelson Mandela our highest honour: Freedom of the City.

Our Foreign Secretary David Lammy criticised the MPs detention and deportation calling it ‘unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning’. He is absolutely right. What matters now is how we – and the world – respond.

In Sheffield there are grassroots campaigners working towards establishing apartheid free zones across our city, asking people to avoid buying Israeli grown fruit and veg. Other such groups have sprung up across the country, with a similar group in Bristol signing up 56 local businesses to commit to not buying or selling produce from Israel; and in Glasgow the Govanhill Apartheid-Free Zone organising assemblies of business owners to end local complicity.

Nationally we have rightly suspended some arms export licences to Israel over concerns with its compliances with international law. Our council has previously called on the government to cease all arms sales and military aid to Israel, which must still happen.

The state of Israel refuses to talk, expels observing politicians, rejects the authority of the International Criminal Court, and continues to unleash racist acts of terror against the Palestinians it holds captive. It is hard to see any other alternative than to support more boycott and divestment campaigns, and to ask the ICC to take action against those politicians and military figures accused of facilitating a genocide.