Quakers join calls for the UK to review its trade agreement with Israel
Quakers in Britain are calling on the UK to review its trade relations with Israel due to serious breaches of international law and human rights in occupied Palestine.
In a letter to Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP, 25 charities including Christian Aid and CAFOD said the government must immediately review relations to ensure the UK complies with international legal obligations.
An International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion found on 19 July that Israel's serious breaches of international law in the occupied Palestinian territory meant its presence there must end.
The UK and other States must ensure they do not “aid or assist" Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, it ruled.
In other action, last week Quakers in Britain joined fifteen other charities urging the UK government to support a resolution at the UN General Assembly accepting the ICJ's advisory opinion.
The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority, but the UK abstained from voting.
The charities called for the UK government to take concrete measures to uphold the ICJ's findings, end arms exports to Israel and push for an immediate ceasefire.
Individuals are invited to email their MP, urging them to ensure the UK upholds the ICJ's findings and ends its own complicity in maintaining and assisting the occupation of Palestinian land.