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WHERE ARE THE VOICES FOR PEACE?  
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Jeremy Corbyn
October 4, 2024
Morning Star
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_ The lack of diplomatic efforts to end wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan,
and Congo shame the international community — as the death tolls
mount, we need an urgent shift towards peace-building and justice. _

People carry their luggage as they cross on foot into Syria through a
crater caused by an Israeli air strike to cut the road between
Lebanese and Syrian checkpoints,

 

Today is another huge national march for the people of Palestine,
which I’m proud to be part of. I am grateful to the Morning Star for
distributing papers to the wonderful people marching today.

As we speak, there are horrific wars going on around the world.

In Ukraine, where Russia wrongly invaded, the terrible war goes on and
on — and thousands are now dying both in Ukraine and Russia.

In Gaza, the bombardment carries on unabated. Now, the invasion of
Lebanon and the dangers of a disastrous war with Iran.

In Sudan, a massive war is being fuelled by the arms trade.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands have been killed
because of the greed of mining companies, extracting cobalt to produce
mobile phones we use here and now.

What seems to me to be so badly lacking in the media and the debates
in our Parliament is the language of peace and diplomacy. All wars
have to end with some kind of negotiation, diplomacy or conference.

It is to the credit of the UN general secretary that he’s been
trying to do that. It is to the shame of Israel that they have banned
him from even entering the country. It is also to the credit of Latin
American presidents and the African Union that they too, have tried to
bring about a diplomatic end to these horrific wars.

The horrific attack in October last year was not the start of the war.
The start of the war was the occupation of Palestine. It is the
continued settlement policy in the West Bank. It is the system of
apartheid. It is the displacement of Palestinians denied their right
to self-determination.

So far, in Gaza alone, 45,000 people have been killed by Israeli
bombardment. The infrastructure has been totally destroyed: hospitals,
roads, schools. Now, with the invasion of Lebanon, a million people
have already been displaced.

If the US can afford $8.9 billion to support Israel’s war, why
can’t the same resources be used to fund peace, energy security,
food security and human rights around the world?

We are witnessing mass death, live on our TV screens. Let us achieve a
vision of peace and justice instead. With these increasingly dangerous
and uncertain times, it is more important than ever that voices for
peace are amplified across the globe.

We reiterate our calls for an end to all arms sales to Israel and for
the only path to a just and lasting peace: an end to the occupation of
Palestine.

In light of these demands, I am proud to sign the Progressive
International’s most recent statement below:

END ARMS SALES

Amid its genocide in Gaza, the Israeli regime is now plunging the
wider region into war. It must be stopped.

One year on from the start of the genocide in Gaza, Israeli forces
have killed over 45,000 Palestinians — and, by some counts, many
times more. Around half the victims are children.

Gaza has been decimated. Its infrastructure has been damaged beyond
repair. Most of its hospitals are inoperational and all its
universities are destroyed. Much of the population has been forced
into a tiny parcel of land where they are regularly bombarded by
Israeli warplanes.

Amid this genocide, the Israeli regime has now launched a series of
violent escalations that threaten to plunge the entire region into
war.

In Lebanon, Israeli forces have launched a relentless bombing
campaign. Within days, they massacred hundreds, displaced over a
million, buried entire communities under rubble, and assassinated
leaders of the regional resistance. Since then, they have begun a
ground invasion into Lebanon — the fourth such invasion in less than
50 years.

All together, the Israeli regime is now waging war on four separate
fronts — in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen — adding to the
instruments of economic warfare already set against their peoples. All
the while, Western politicians and their stenographers strain to
sustain the lie that Israel is acting merely in “self-defence.”

The Israeli regime is thus not acting alone. It has the full backing
of Washington, which recently sent an $8.7 billion military aid
package to Tel Aviv. European countries are also continuing to export
arms to Israel, aiding and abetting war crimes while ignoring their
responsibilities under international law to prevent genocide.

The Israeli regime’s brutal violence recalls that of apartheid South
Africa, which escalated its war against Angola, Mozambique and Namibia
through the 1980s. Then, as now, international solidarity was critical
in dismantling apartheid. It was with the support of Cuban soldiers
— and Soviet arms — that South Africa was defeated in Angola,
accelerating apartheid’s demise.

The Israeli regime’s reckless escalation is not a show of strength.
It is a sign of weakness. But it is also a grave portent of further
violence on the horizon.

It is clear, now more than ever, that liberation is the only path to
peace. The task of progressive forces today is to internationalise the
resistance to the Israeli regime, to break the chains of complicity
that sustain it, and to accelerate the global struggle for Palestinian
liberation. Nothing less can secure peace for all the peoples of the
region.

_Jeremy Corbyn is independent MP for Islington North._

* Israel-Gaza War
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