Input on the Role of Progressive Lawyers in the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign by ANC Youth League (ANCYL) Provincial Chairperson Muhammad Khalid Sayed at National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL) Western Cape AGM and Annual Dialogue Seminar, 1 July 2015
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I greet you on behalf of the leadership of the ANCYL in the Western Cape. It is indeed an honour for the Youth League to engage and build relations with progressive lawyers such as yourselves.
In my input tonight, being a young person, I would like to move beyond words and into action. There are many tragedies that the Israeli regime is currently enacting against the Palestinians which have a legal dimension. However, I’m going to just briefly discuss the most recent UN report which was published last week on Israel’s 2014 attacks on the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Thereafter, I’m going to speak on action that can be taken to hold Israel accountable by ordinary people around the world and lawyers in particular. Finally, I’m going to provide some very specific ideas for this gathering to consider.
The United Nations Human Rights Council report which was released last Monday covering last year’s Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Gaza Strip was devastating. Over 2000 Palestinians and 550 Palestinian children were killed according to the report. The chair of the UN investigation commission, Justice Mary McGowan Davisto said that: "The extent of the devastation and human suffering in [the Palestinian] Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come”.
The 183-page UN report details how in total over 2251 Palestinians were killed, including 551 children. More than 11000 Palestinians, including 3436 children, were injured with almost 10 percent suffering permanent disabilities. Another report, produced by Action on Armed Violence, an organisation that tracks the global impact of explosive weapons on civilians reports that Israel killed and injured more civilians with explosive weapons than any other state in the world in 2014 due to its military assault on Gaza. 2014 according to Action on Armed Violence indicates that Gaza accounted for the third highest number of civilian casualties from explosive violence globally exceeding civilian death and injury in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Ukraine. As a result of Israel’s "Operation protective Edge” Gaza was the third most dangerous place in the world to be a civilian in 2014.
However, the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people is beyond just numbers. It’s more than just mourning for the dead Palestinian child - no matter how haunting and tragic that may be. There are crimes that Israel is committing and crimes that it must be held accountable for. One way of holding Israel accountable it through our courts, another is through boycotts and a third, is through a potent combination of the two.