People should stand up for Palestine

People of the world should be convinced to stand up for the rights of the Palestinians, says an expert, on the second anniversary of Israel’s 22-day war against the Gaza Strip.

“I think what we can do is to influence people at a grassroots level to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people, [and] to put as much pressure as they can on their governments so that the postbags of ministers are full of people, who say, ‘this is what happens in Palestine. It is unacceptable. Israel shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.’ So, that is one thing that we can do,” Kamel Hawwash, vice chairman of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, London told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

“And secondly, I refer … to things that we can do in terms of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign. Why should anybody be buying anything from Israeli settlements or from Israel knowing that the profits from these sales aid and enable the settlements to continue and provide Israel with the income that allows it to continue to develop weapons to use against the Palestinian people?” Hawwash asked.

In December 2008, Tel Aviv staged an all-out war on the Gaza Strip. During the twenty-two-day offensive that included land, sea, and air strikes, more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 300 children, were killed and nearly 5,000 more injured.

The offensive leveled 4,000 houses in the blockaded territory and devastated a large portion of infrastructure. The war also saw the targeting of UN-run schools and centers by Israeli army forces, and the displacement of more than 50,000 people.

Tel Aviv also used internationally banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs, against the Gazans during the three-week war.