Council leader slams ‘genocidal’, ‘apartheid’ Israel’s slaughter of refugees in tents at Al Mawasi

Council leader responds to demands for action against murder of refugees by affirming party’s support for sanctions against murderous regime

The leader of Hastings Borough Council has publicly condemned Israel’s bombing of refugees sheltering in tents in Al Mawasi, Gaza as ‘inhumane’.

Julia Hilton, Green Party leader in the East Sussex town, was responding to demands for action on Tuesday from a coalition of local groups released yesterday after the area was struck by five 2,000 bombs, killing 40 and leaving 30 foot craters in the sand. The victims, mostly women and children, were ‘torn apart’ by the blasts.

Later the same day an emergency protest outside the council’s offices drew a crowd of forty in pouring rain where Hastings and District Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HDPSC) branch secretary Laurie Holden read a message from a friend in Al Mawasi who had survived the bombing:

Our dear friends, we are fine, thank god. But we are in great pain because the massacre can only be described as genocide. There are entire families that have disappeared.

They are about a kilometre away from us but the place we are in rose from the ground and shook from the intensity of the bombing. Strange and very powerful bombs.’

Ahead of the protest, council leader Hilton released a statement on behalf of the Hastings Green Group stating they were ‘shocked and saddened to hear of the attack on a designated safe zone in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.’ The statement went on to say that the Green Party now recognised the current Israeli government as an ‘apartheid’ state and that its military operations against the Palestinian people were acts of ‘genocide’.

It also affirmed the party’s support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and stated the party would continue to press the UK government to suspend all arms export licenses to Israel, before continuing:

We recognise that, for several years now, the local group, Hastings Friends of al-Mawasi, has been fostering a close partnership with residents in al-Mawasi. Recent funds raised by the people of Hastings have been sent directly to al-Mawasi, for tents and other basic essentials, to help the thousands of displaced people sheltering there. 

We condemn the inhumane attack on this community, a supposed humanitarian safe zone, and we extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of all who have been touched by this tragedy.

The coalition also reached out to local Labour MP Helena Dollimore but had not received any response at the time of writing. Her party leader, Keir Starmer, has described himself as a supporter of Israel ‘without qualification’.

HDPSC Chair Katy Colley said:

It was heartening to see so many people come out at short notice on a rainy September evening to show their support and solidarity with the besieged and terrorised people of Al Mawasi. Nothing on earth can justify these massacres.

We welcome the statement from the leader of the council, condemning this latest atrocity, and look forward to those words being turned to action at a local and national level. However, it is disappointing that we have not yet heard from our MP at a time when so many in this constituency are heartbroken at the senseless slaughter.

Grace Lally from Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi addded:

Hastings residents have been in constant contact with friends in Al-Mawasi over the last 11 months and were on a Zoom call only last Sunday. It has been deeply moving to see local people respond with empathy and generosity to the terrible plight of people in Palestine and we have raised tens of thousands of pounds to support the community there. 

These are small but significant acts of solidarity at a time Gaza faces the possibility of complete annihilation.

Al Mawasi, described late last year by Israel’s far-right UK ambassador as a ‘shelter’ for Gazans, was at the time an empty wasteland. Now thousands of families have been forced to crowd into the tiny ‘safe zone’ but have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.

SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:

Thanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.