We undersigned call on the British government to do all in its power to secure: 1. Immediate halt to Israeli invasion and bombing of Gaza.* 2. Immediate opening of Gaza borders with Israel and Egypt to supply food, water, fuel, medicine and essential equipment. Access for international media. 3. Immediate halt to Israeli raids, killings, detentions, demolitions and curfews in the West Bank and Jerusalem. 4. Peaceful engagement with Hamas as legitimate elected partner in government of unified Palestine . 5. Peacetalks to end Israeli occupation and settlement of West Bank and Jerusalem, secure a viable Palestinian state, including Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. Right of return for refugees.** 6. Suspension of European trade Association with Israel until it ends occupation in accordance with UN resolutions and complies with human rights conditions in Article 2 of Association agreement. 7. British government policy*** that puts our commitment to justice, international law and human rights before compliance with the United States.**** *Why no mention of Palestinian rocket fire or Hamas Because when you see a small man on the ground with a big man standing on his head, you dont tell the man on the ground to stop kicking. Because the terror of Hamas rockets pales into insignificance against the terror of all-out military assault: the ratio of Israeli to Palestinian dead in the Gaza invasion is 1:100; because an occupied people has the right to resist; and because Israel itself is a state born and expanded by terror: about 1,800 Palestinians have been killed since Israel pulled out of Gaza three years ago, including 22 killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the recent ceasefire. Throughout the six-month ceasefire, Israel prevented essential supplies of food, fuel and medicine from reaching a civilian population of 1.5 million. **Is this return practical Practical or not, the refugees of 1948 and 1967 have this right. It is up to them, in the light of terms offered, to decide whether they would prefer compensation or alternative accommodation � for instance in West Bank settlements vacated by Israeli colonists. US and Israeli spending on Israeli 'defence' could be diverted to fund compensation and resettlement for refugees; Britain, largely responsible for getting Palestine into this mess in the first place, should also contribute, perhaps with money saved by withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. ***Britain has a special responsibility for Palestine which it took from Turkey in the First World War and, in the Balfour Declaration, committed to accommodating a Jewish national home. If Britain, and the US, had been more generous in admitting Jewish refugees from Hitler's Europe there would have been less pressure for a Zionist state after the Second World War. As it was, when the situation became unmanageable, the UK passed the buck to the UN. UN partition plans were overtaken, and Jewish territory doubled by the by the war of 1948. In 1967, when Israel took the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai, it was a British-backed resolution 242 at the UN which called for Israeli withdrawal from conquered territories and a just settlement for Palestinian refugees. ****Until the spectacular success of Israel in the 1967 war, the US preserved a balance between Arab and Israeli interests: it was Washington that called a halt to the 1956 Suez adventure, when Egypt was attacked by Israel, Britain and France. Since then the US has supported and financed Israel against all comers, most recently by blocking a Gaza ceasefire resolution in the UN Security Council.