STOP THE WAR COALITION
ALL-LONDON “CEASEFIRE NOW” DEMONSTRATION END ISRAEL’S ATTACKS ON LEBANON AND GAZA STOP BLAIR’S SUPPORT OF BUSH’S WARS WHITEHALL FRIDAY 28 JULY 5PM-7PM
Called by Stop the War Coalition, CND, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative and Lebanese community organisations
1) BUSH AND BLAIR SAY KEEP BOMBING
Israel is using cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs in Lebanon. George Bush and Tony Blair say keep bombing. Israel is deliberatly bombing fleeing convoys and ambulances. Bush and Blair say keep bombing. The United Nations says the one million Lebanese fleeing the Israeli bombardment are facing a humanitarian disaster. Bush and Blair say keep bombing. Israel, says Kofi Anan, is deliberately killing UN observers in Lebanon. Bush and Blair say keep bombing.
The world is witnessing a country, in the words of the Lebanese government, being bombed back 50 years, with over 400 Lebanese civilians killed, unknown numbers buried in the rubble of villages flattened by Israel’s onslaught, Beirut now under collossal bombardment, thousands injured and without access to medical help and Lebanon’s civil infrastructure completely devastated.
Nothing is escaping the Israeli bombs and missiles: hospitals, schools, power stations, mosques, residential areas, bridges, roads, airports — all targeted as Israel turns Lebanon into a free fire zone. And this is what the commander of the Israel military calls “the most moral army in the world.”
On Tuesday, as the world’s fourth most powerful military bombarded over 100 Lebanese towns and villages — the highest daily figure yet — Condeleezza Rice stood side by side with the instigator of this barbarity, Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert, and pronounced that we are watching the creation of “a new Middle East”.
No doubt this is the same “new Middle East” we were promised when Bush and Blair invaded Iraq, where — hidden from view for the moment by the monstrous war crimes in Lebanon — over 100 Iraqis are being killed every day and Iraq sinks ever further into unimaginable depths of destruction and mass slaughter.
Last weekend’s emergency demonstrations in hundreds of towns and cities around the world relected, in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s words, “the concience of the people”. From the 30,000 who protested in London to the 20,000 in Sydney, Australia — extraordinary numbers for demonstrations called at such short notice — the message was the same: immediate unconditional ceasfire in Lebanon and Gaza now.
Virtually all opinion polls around the world show the same “conscience of the people” calling for an immediate end to the killing and the devastation. Nearly every government in the world is saying the same.
14 British human rights, religious and aid groups, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Save the Children, have urged Tony Blair to support calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Thousands are signing the Stop the War/CND letter to Tony Blair which will be delivered to Downing Street during the CEASEFIRE NOW demonstration this Friday 28 July (see below).
But George Bush and Tony Blair say keep on bombing. Which is why all of us who are horrified by Israel’s barbaric war crimes should do everything we can with the utmost urgency to add our voices to the call for Tony Blair to end his slavish obedience to George Bush, which has brought such catastrophe to the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, and which threatens to extend the carnage into Syria and Iran.
SIGN THE STOP THE WAR/CND LETTER TO TONY BLAIR (SEE BELOW) * JOIN THE “CEASEFIRE NOW” PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND * CONTACT YOUR MP AND INSIST THAT HE/SHE CALLS FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE * GET INVOLVED IN YOUR LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUP * FLOOD THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WITH COMPLAINTS AND LETTERS AT ITS REFUSAL TO GIVE PROPER COVERAGE TO THE ANTI-WAR MESSAGE
ALL-LONDON “CEASEFIRE NOW” DEMONSTRATION END ISRAEL’S ATTACKS ON LEBANON AND GAZA STOP BLAIR’S SUPPORT OF BUSH’S WARS WHITEHALL FRIDAY 28 JULY 5PM-7PM Called by Stop the War Coalition, CND, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative and Lebanese community organisations
1) SIGN THIS LETTER TO TONY BLAIR
DEAR PRIME MINISTER, Most people in this country are horrified at the bloodshed and destruction unfolding daily in Lebanon. There can be no justification for the conduct of the Israeli government and armed forces, which are laying waste to a country in an operation which will hugely damage the prospects for peace in the Middle East.
We are dismayed that the British government, almost alone in the world, is not calling for a ceasefire to enable the suffering to stop. This either shows a deplorable indifference to the plight of the Lebanese people or an attitude of total subservience to the foreign policy of the US administration. Either way, our country is being humiliated and our isolation from world opinion underlined once more.
We therefore call on the government to change its position and join the vast majority of the world’s states, the UN secretary-general and the Archbishop of Canterbury in calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Lebanon to save lives and prevent the destruction of that country.”
ADD YOUR NAME TO THE THOUSANDS SIGNING THE STOP THE WAR/CND LETTER TO TONY BLAIR. YOU CAN DO THIS ONLINE, HERE: http://tinyurl.com/rgdwt
ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS, RELATIVES, WORK COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBOURS TO SIGN THE LETTER.
ainstream media of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza have highlighted yet again the importance of alternative sources of information and comment. The range and depth of articles now available on the internet is extraordinary. Three essential websites for everyone in the anti-war movement are: ANTIWAR: http://antiwar.com/ COUNTERPUNCH: http://www.counterpunch.org/ ZNET: http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
And of course for news of anti-war activity in Britain, visit the STOP THE WAR website regularly: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
