The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) is a pan-Canadian umbrella of Jewish anti-Occupation groups. We wish to join Palestinian Canadian and other concerned Canadians in expressing our outrage at the siege of the Gaza Strip. Gaza City was plunged into darkness this past month after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers its only electrical plant. 1.5 million Palestinians civilians who live in Gaza are besieged and are suffering from severe food, medicine and life essentials, shortages imposed on them by the inhumane Israel aggression. Israel, which occupies the Palestinian territories, is starving and killing Palestinians in hopes of forcing them into submission and into accepting its illegal occupation and to forgo the right of return.
We the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) join the Palestinian Canadian community in demanding that the Canadian government, politicians, and MPs:
1. Condemn the latest Israel aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza.
2. Demand an immediate halt to all Israeli brutal use of military force against the Palestinians which is taking a serious humanitarian toll on civilians.
3. Lift the blockade on the Palestinian people and allow all living essentials, food, medicine and energy to enter the territories without any delay.
4. Allow an independent international tribunal to enter the Palestinian territories to investigate Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
5. Call upon the international community and Canada in particular to act immediately to stop these crimes.
6. Call upon the international community and Canada in particular to renew the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibility under Article 1 of the Convention, to ensure that it is respected under all circumstances, and their responsibility under Article 146 to pursue persons suspected of perpetrating serious violations of the convention. We affirm that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violations are considered war crimes under Article 147 of the Convention and under its first protocol.
We ask MPs and other elected representatives to join the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and international human rights groups who have warned that the blockade will cause a health catastrophe, will drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment and water facilities and to condemn the Israel government actions and force it to lift these inhumane measures which defy basic humanitarian standards.