[Open letter is continued in full below]
An Open Letter to the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and all EU member states and EU institutions on Israel/Palestine and the Gaza crisis
* All signatories are signing in their personal capacity so as not to imply any institutional positions. However, the following signatories are associated with a broad variety of noted institutions in the policy arena, including but not exclusively, the International Crisis Group, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Chatham House, the Brookings Institution, the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Middle East Institute, the Century Foundation, the European Union Institute for Security Studies, Oxford University, Cambridge University, King’s College London, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, and others.
As a group of researchers, policy analysts, and experts with deep commitments to and expertise on the Middle East and North Africa, we have always worked side-by-side to advance policies based on shared universal values.
Today, we find much of the government-led responses to the Gaza war to be in grave violation of these values and principles.
After the horrific slaughter of civilians by Hamas in Israel on October 7, the world correctly and justifiably reacted with condemnation and solidarity; a response we are in complete alignment with.
An accumulated legacy of dehumanisation of Palestinians has resulted in far too many western governments uncritically condoning the campaign of collective punishment against millions of innocent Palestinians that Israel launched in retaliation. When Russia bombed critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, or Assad held Aleppo under siege, western governments loudly and rightly condemned these attacks and called for immediate humanitarian ceasefires. Many wonder why they won't do the same here.
We have reached a point where there is virtual consensus among rights groups that war crimes were committed by Hamas on October 7 where over a thousand Israeli civilians were killed, and that war crimes have been committed by Israel since its aerial bombardment campaign against Gaza began which has killed more than five thousand civilians so far. To make matters worse, incitements to ethnic cleansing removing the distinction between civilians and combatants has been broadcast from the most senior levels of the Israeli establishment. The facts make for an ominous forecast and averting it should be our collective priority and is our collective responsibility.
Western capitals pride themselves on solidarity with allies, and are demonstrating this again with Israel. But to achieve long-term security for Israel and the broader region, there is a moral and strategic obligation to ensure that Israel’s self-defence is characterised by international humanitarian law and leads to an end to the occupation; Western governments have not sufficiently emphasised that obligation, despite the situation demanding it. UN experts have also raised the need to restrain Israel from international law violations.
But rhetoric is not enough. Using diplomatic leverage to pressure both Israel and Hamas, who are holding hundreds of hostages, towards adhering to international law is one of our key tools for de-escalation. One that is currently being discarded.
Western governments should be advancing attempts to de-escalate, rather than give the impression that ‘might is right’. Given the power asymmetry between Israel and Palestinians, this has enabled collective punishment in Gaza, and fast-tracked illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, where reports indicate that Palestinians are being dispossessed, killed, or placed in ‘administrative detention’ in their hundreds.
This path, rather than ensuring security for Israelis, deepens the cycle of violence and only makes the conflict’s regionalisation more likely.
The lack of strategic focus and failure to pressure collective adherence to international law, denigrates the West’s global moral standing. It isolates it from swathes of the world, deepening divisions at a time of great power competition and shared challenges to our climate, collective security, and the world economy. It also creates a precedent that imperils small states and fatally undermines any semblance of a global rules-based order.
We are mandated to respond to this challenge by foregrounding our common universal values, and we should be forewarned that our response is nothing less than a civilisational litmus test, which will catalyse either the spread or retreat of these values in the world.
We, the undersigned, call on western governments and our colleagues across the policy-making world to centre those core values, upholding the equal humanity of Palestinians and Israelis, rejecting anti-Semitism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, at home and abroad.
Above all, in this crisis, we advocate for an immediate ceasefire, the provision of humanitarian aid to all in need, and the return to political processes that can facilitate just and fair resolutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
If we fail to do this, and instead enable the worst, then we condemn this region to the tumult of war, deepen global divisions, and put an indelible stain on our collective conscience.
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1. Comfort Ero, Institute Director
2. Marwan Muasher, former Foreign Minister
3. Ana Gomes, Former Member of the European Parliament (2004-2019)
4. Omar Razzaz, Former Prime Minister
5. Gian Giacomo Migone, Former Chair, Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, Republic of Italy
6. Yair Wallach, Reader of Israel Studies
7. Yezid Sayigh, Senior Fellow
8. Lara Friedman, Foundation President
9. Maha Yahya, Center Director
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