By IRNA,
London : British Muslims have joined a coalition of politicians, trade unionists, academics and lawyers to ensure that Prime Minister David Cameron keeps up pressure on the Israeli regime to end its three-year siege of Gaza.
“We urge you in the name of humanity to provide leadership to end this siege,” the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said in an open letter to Cameron Thursday signed by the coalition of more than 70 others.
“This state of affairs should not be allowed to continue for a day longer and the time has come for the newly elected British government to use all its resources to bring an end to the inhumane Gaza Blockade,” the letter said.
Cameron told MPs returning to parliament on Wednesday that Israel’s killing in international waters of passengers in a commando raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was “completely unacceptable.”
“It is in their own interests to lift it (the siege) and to allow these vital supplies to get through,” he said speaking as a “friend of Israel.”
In the joint letter, MCB secretary general Abdul Bari said that he also commended Foreign Secretary William Hague’s statement calling for an end to the blockade of Gaza and said he was asking the UK government “to pursue this course of action as a matter of urgency.”
According to UN statistics, around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water.
A UN fact finding mission has also described the blockade as “collective punishment”, illegal in international law.
An Early Day Motion to parliament, calling on the international community to require Israel to end its siege also immediately was signed by nearly 70 MPs as soon as it was raised on Wednesday.