Competent Authorities

Here:

We, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, condemn the heinous attack carried out on Saturday, 17 October, by masked settlers in Taybeh against local residents during the olive harvest, and against the foreign guests, including diplomats and officials from European countries, who were with them in a visit of solidarity to the areas sustaining continuous attacks by similar groups of settlers.

This wild attack on the Christian village of Taybeh and against its peaceful population is not an isolated incident. In the past weeks the Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to a wide-scale terror by settlers, which is reaching a peak during this time of the olive harvest, when families go to their lands to collect what they need to live and renew their generations-long bond with their lands. In this regard, we consider the religious ruling recently published, allowing Jews to take the olives of Palestinians, as unfounded, very worrying and dangerous, and absolutely unacceptable. We very much appreciate that several rabbis and Jewish voices have publicly rejected it.

We thank the President of the State of Israel Mr. Yitzhak Herzog for his words of condemnation. Unfortunately, the facts on the ground show that these attacks continue because of the impunity enjoyed by those who commit them. We recognize the action taken by the Israel Police and the arrests carried out following this attack, and we express our hope that this enforcement will continue in a serious and consistent manner and will not remain an isolated measure.

We call upon the competent authorities to bring those responsible to justice, and we urge the international community to intensify its efforts to ensure the protection of the people of Taybeh and the West Bank, as well as all those who visit these areas to express their solidarity.

We renew our full support to the community of Taybeh and its churches, and we will continue, as in the past, to do everything possible to preserve the Christian presence there.

We lift up our prayers for the people of Taybeh and for all the people of the Holy Land, that they may live in safety, justice and peace.

+ The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem

But not, alas, here:

The UK government has rejected a call by Jeremy Corbyn MP for an independent inquiry into “British complicity” in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The former Labour leader wrote to Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July calling on him to back a bill for a public Chilcot-style inquiry into British military, economic and political cooperation with Israel over the course of its ongoing onslaught in Gaza which began in October 2023.

The bill, which was rejected by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government during its second reading last year, specifically sought a probe into the British government’s “supply of weapons, surveillance aircraft” to Israel as well as its use of Royal Air Force bases. The independent MP revived the bill in July, following Starmer’s resignation, and called on Burnham for his support.

But Burnham’s government rejected the call in response to a written question on Monday, saying that a tribunal isn’t necessary as there are “extensive mechanisms already available for parliamentary accountability and oversight”. “Andy Burnham rightly said that the last Labour government ”got it wrong” over Gaza,” Corbyn said in a statement on Tuesday. “However, his words will mean very little if he doesn’t break with the last government’s shameful record of complicity, secrecy and evasion.”

The UK has supplied Israel with arms during the course of its military operation in Gaza, which is confirmed to have left more than 74,480 people dead and has involved ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in various parts of the territory. Britain’s Royal Air Force has also conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza and supplied Israel with intelligence for its operations. “Delaying scrutiny will not make questions about British complicity in genocide disappear,” Corbyn wrote. “The public deserve to know the full extent of Britain’s military, economic and political cooperation with Israel, including arms supplies, surveillance flights and the use of RAF bases. It’s not complicated: if the government has nothing to hide, then why block our efforts to expose the truth?”