§ Mr. David Lepper (Brighton, Pavilion)I rise to present the petition of the Brighton and Hove branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which includes nearly 400 signatures, including my own.
The petition
Declares that since the beginning of the second Intifada, 2000 Palestinians have been killed and some tens of thousands injured as a result of Israeli armed forces' and settlers' indiscriminate and excessive use of lethal force; that the UK continues to trade arms with Israel despite Israel's appalling human rights record, its grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and its ongoing occupation and settler-colonization of Palestinian lands; that there are also widespread concerns that British-made equipment is being used against Palestinian civilians, in defiance of UK export criteria; that under article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement, the EU has the right to invoke sanctions against states with poor human rights records; and that Early Day Motion 1140 has called for an immediate embargo on British arms exports to Israel.The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to invoke article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement and impose an immediate embargo on British arms exports to Israel, to be maintained until Israel ends its illegal occupation and respects all UN resolutions.To lie upon the Table.