Letters of Support Requested for Welsh National Assembly Speaker's
Mohammad Asghar, a new member of the National Assembly for Wales, has invited the entirety of the Assembly to meet with Israel's UK Ambassador Ron Prosor later this month. Taking a principled stand in protest against the Israeli occupation and persistent violation of Palestinian human rights, the Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, announced that he will boycott the meeting, stating: "I am unwilling to accept the invitation to meet the ambassador, because of my objection to the failure of the State of Israel to meet its international obligations to the Palestinian people of the Holy Lands," and inviting other Assembly Members to do the same.
This is a truly courageous stand by a parliamentarian who will no
doubt come under heavy attack for his decision. Lord Elis-Thomas has
taken other principled positions in the past, notably against nuclear
proliferation. Ironically, it was Wales's first Muslim Assembly
Member, Mohammad Asghar, who issued the Prosor invitation. Asghar was
elected in 2007, a year after Lord Elis-Thomas took a strong and
controversial position criticizing previous Welsh Assemblies for their
lack of diversity.
It is a priority for supporters of justice and human rights to support
and defend those who take principled positions in the face brutality
and oppression. As such we, the Palestinian BDS National Committee
(BNC), call on people of conscience to communicate their support for
Lord Elis-Thomas. Below is the text of the letter sent to the Speaker
by the BNC, a copy of which was also sent to Assembly Member Mohammad
Asghar. We ask that you send similar letters of support to Lord
Elis-Thomas and copies of your letters to Mr. Asghar.
Letters can be sent to:
Dafydd Elis-Thomas, AM
email: dafydd.elis-thomas@wales.gov.uk
Tel: 01766 515028
7 Bank Place
Porthmadog
Gwynedd
LL49 9AA
Mohammad Asghar, AM
mohammad.asghar@wales.gov.uk
National Assembly for Wales,
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1NA
*Sample Letter*
To: Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, AM and Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales
Cc: Mr. Mohammad Asghar, AM
From: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National
Committee (BNC), Palestine
Re: Invitation of Israeli Ambassador to Meet with Members of the
National Assembly for Wales
Dear Lord Elis-Thomas,
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee
(BNC) is a coordinating body made up of Palestinian civil society
organizations representing workers, farmers, students, refugees, and
the social and political forces of Palestinian society at large.
We believe that it is shameful that Mohammad Asghar, or any other
British public official, would call for a meeting with a
representative of the Israeli state. Thirty-one Palestinians have been
killed and eighty-five have been wounded by Israeli attacks over the
past month in Gaza alone, where the Israeli-imposed siege has resulted
in catastrophic shortages in fuel, food, clean water, medicine and
other basic human needs. In the West Bank, Israel's colonial policies
of land theft and strangulation targeting the indigenous Palestinian
population continue unabated, as Israeli illegal settlements continue
to expropriate and colonize Palestinian land; as the apartheid wall
and Israeli-only roads encircle and imprison Palestinian communities;
and as hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints choke the remaining
life out of Palestinian society under occupation.
This year is also significant in that it marks sixty years since
Israel was established through the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000
Palestinians out of their homes and off of their lands, also marking
sixty years of Israel's forcible denial of the basic human right of
these Palestinians to return to the places from which they were
expelled, and sixty years of institutionalized racial discrimination
against the Palestinians who managed to stay and who, as citizens of
Israel, have been touted as a sign of Israeli ?democracy.? The Israeli
apartheid reality faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel has been
repeatedly compared to its South African predecessor by prominent
South African, Palestinian and even Israeli figures.
As a career diplomat who holds the rank of Major (Reserve) in the
Israeli Occupation Forces' Artillery Division, Ron Prosor is no
regular ambassador. His job is to hide and legitimize Israel's daily
war crimes and crimes against humanity to the British government and
the British people. It is important to remember that it is this same
army that recently murdered two British citizens who dared to stand on
the side of justice. Palestine will never forget Tom Hurndall and
James Miller.
Prosor's role as chief Israeli propagandist in the UK was made clear
in the past weeks when, amidst the carnage in Gaza, Prosor dared to
accuse British society of becoming a hotbed of anti-Israel extremism.
Responding to a principled and historic decision by the University and
College Union (UCU) to?consider the moral and political implications
of educational links with Israeli institutions,?Prosor addressed the
British public saying that British academics ?have seen their union
held hostage by radical factions, armed with political agendas and
personal interests.?
Your decision to boycott the meeting with Mr. Prosor is a clear
indication of your respect for international law, and the rights of
human beings to live in freedom and dignity. We commend your courage,
and hope that many more will follow your lead, and that of respectable
British institutions like the University and College Union, UNISON,
National Union of Journalists, and the Church of England as well as
notable personalities like Ken Loach, John Berger and Roger Waters in
making their principled positions known to the world. When the
powerful states of the world turn their backs on the downtrodden and
oppressed, it is up to the people of the world, people like yourself,
to stand with the truth in the face of all odds. History will not
forget those who speak truth to power, nor will it forgive those who
were willfully blind to the horrors that power commits.
In the hope that someday we can thank you in person in a free Palestine.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee, Palestine