For immediate release - 26 July 2024
In the past few hours, the Government of the United Kingdom has changed its stance on a past ruling by International Criminal Court (ICC), who issued an arrest warrant for the incumbent Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, among other top Israeli officials and those of Hamas.
Another World Belfast would like to dually welcome this decision and ,in extending a hand of solidarity to the Palestinian people, echo the calls by the Stop the War Coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and others, to push the British Foreign Secretary to halt all arms sales to Israel, so as to end the slaughter of innocent Palestinian children, men, women, and others.
As a queer organisation, run for, and by queer people, it is not only our right, but our duty to call out and condemn injustice. In Netanyahu’s speech to congress, the Prime Minister likened queer people that supported peace for Palestine as ‘chickens for KFC’. Not only is the comment abhorrent, but the sentiment underlying its prejudice is manifestly false. There are many gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and otherwise queer people living in the Palestinian territories, and to make such a baseless and deceptive comment based on false premises of the people of Palestine is vile, racist, and dehumanising slander. If the Israeli Prime Minister really cared about the queer community, he would immediately halt the ongoing onslaught of our brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip.
History will undoubtedly show that our collective resolve, our solidarity, and our voice for an end to injustice in whatever form it takes, will be judged as the only means by which our wish for a world of peace and justice may be achieved.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, leading an apartheid state with genocidal intent. We commend this statement in solidarity with our Palestinian friends.