Here we reproduce two draft e-mails which have been suggested by the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) coordination team of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP). ECCP is a network of 43 European organisations, NGOs, trade unions and solidarity groups from 18 European countries, dedicated to the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, justice and equality.
We find that this attempt to link different struggles – to show that Palestinian rights are indivisible from the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people – is an important development in building an international movement to support the Palestinians. We therefore urge you to support the ECI initiative and to send these mails to any relevant organisations with which you are in contact.
In particular, the mails ask for support for the ongoing ECI to #StopSettlements and stop EU complicity with the oppression of Palestinians. An ECI is more than just a “normal” petition. If the initiative receives one million validated signatures, the EU Commission is legally obliged to respond to the demand for a ban on illegal trading with the occupied territories.
You can sign the ECI here. Please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com if you have any success stories, and we will do our best to report them.
Phil Butland (commissioning editor, theleftberlin.com)
1. Draft e-mail to gender equality activist groups
SUBJECT- EU: No equality until everyone is free / Sign the ECI petition
‘No free homeland without women’s freedom’.
Dear XXX,
As Europeans fighting for gender equality, and against sexism and the patriarchal system in our countries, we bear a responsibility to support our sisters’ fights abroad. Including in Palestine where Palestinian women resists the Israeli apartheid regime and demand the fulfilment of Palestinian rights. Our Palestinian sisters are not only confronted with gender violence, femicide but also Israeli settler colonialism which constitutes a gender violence in itself. Israeli occupation and colonisation add another layer of oppression and contribute to gender-based violence within Palestinian communities.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Join our call to action to tackle Israeli settler colonialism and SIGN the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to #StopSettlements and stop EU complicity with the oppression of Palestinians. More than 100 organisations joined the coalition, among them Human Rights Watch, Avaaz, FIDH.
Why it is important for you to support the ECI?
Israel economically profits from stolen Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. There, indigenous Palestinian communities are expelled from their land and live under a military system where every basic right is violated. There are more than 150 illegal settlements built in the West Bank, where approximately 600,000-700,000 illegal settlers live.
Illegal Israeli businesses profit from the suffering of the Palestinians in violation of international law, as pointed out by many international organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. The EU is one of the biggest business partners of companies profiting from the settlements! It is estimated that companies in the settlements earn $300 million a year selling their illegal products in Europe: it is part of the economic backbone of the Israeli military occupation. As Europeans, we must help the Palestinians to live in safety and to have their fundamental rights respected, and ensure that the EU is no longer complicit in war crimes.
This historic citizens’ initiative can ban the EU from trading with illegal settlements all around the world, ONLY if we reach one million signatures. Now more than ever, every signature counts.
Our global movement for justice has mobilised to end wars and hold war criminals accountable around the world, from Myanmar to Syria, from Israel/Palestine to Russia. Let’s unite now to stop the EU rewarding human rights violations with profits.
SIGN now and spread the initiative in your networks and social media to reach 1 million signatures before February 2023!
With hope and determination,
2. Draft e-mail to LGBTQI+ activist groups
SUBJECT- EU: No equality until everyone is free / Sign the ECI petition
Dear XXX,
Today we are calling you to join an important global fight for equality and against injustice.
The Palestinian struggle is deeply committed to addressing gender violence, feminicide, queerphobia and settler colonialism, which are co-constitutive of each other. The State of Israel and its supporters use Pinkwashing as a strategy to cynically exploit LGBTQIA+ rights in order to project a progressive image of Israel while concealing its occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians (also read here and here about pinkwashing).
Awareness that queer and trans-liberation cannot be separated from Palestinian liberation is growing. As Europeans fighting against sexism, patriarchy, queerphobia and all systems of oppression in our countries, we must support Palestinian people in their struggle for their rights and against the Israeli settler colonial system.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Join our call to action to tackle Israeli settler colonialism and SIGN the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to #StopSettlements and stop EU complicity with the oppression of Palestinians. More than 100 organisations joined the coalition, among them Human Rights Watch, Avaaz, FIDH.
Why it is important for you to support the ECI?
Israel economically profits from stolen Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. There, indigenous Palestinian communities are expelled from their land and live under a military system where every basic right is violated. There are more than 150 illegal settlements built in the West Bank, where approximately 600,000-700,000 illegal settlers live.
Illegal Israeli businesses profit from the suffering of the Palestinians in violation of international law, as pointed out by many international organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. The EU is one of the biggest business partners of companies profiting from the settlements! It is estimated that companies in the settlements earn $300 million a year selling their illegal products in Europe: it is part of the economic backbone of the Israeli military occupation. As Europeans, we must help the Palestinians to live in safety and to have their fundamental rights respected, and ensure that the EU is no longer complicit in war crimes.
This historic citizens’ initiative can ban the EU from trading with illegal settlements all around the world, ONLY if we reach one million signatures. Now more than ever, every signature counts.
Our global movement for justice has mobilised to end wars and hold war criminals accountable around the world, from Myanmar to Syria, from Israel/Palestine to Russia. Let’s unite now to stop the EU rewarding human rights violations with profits.
SIGN now and spread the initiative in your networks and social media to reach 1 million signatures before February 2023!
With hope and determination,
