Tom Hunt is challenged to stand down over Gaza

The following letter from Julie Pearn to Cllr Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council, has not received a reply. On the day that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister), Yoav Gallant (former Israeli Defence Minister) and Mohammed Deif (military commander of Hamas) I am happy to publish it. The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Following this decision surely the Labour Government must stop selling arms to the Genocidal Government of Israel? And surely our Council leader should be calling for this? Here is the letter in full.

Dear Tom

You will have received my message on Tuesday morning (24th Oct) including a video clip of a small girl walking alone in Northern Gaza carrying another child on her back who appears to be dead. The girl is unkempt, thin and clearly traumatised. There are thousands of children like her in Gaza, many left without surviving relatives as whole families have been wiped out through Israeli bombing with no respect for civilian life. In the last days you will have seen images of women and children being forced to flee Northern Gaza while males, including minors, are being rounded up in large numbers.  Scenes like these are common preludes to massacre. We only know of these because Palestinians are filming their own extermination. International journalists have been excluded and Gazan journalists have been targeted and killed in their hundreds.

At local level activists including myself have been advising you, as Leader of the Council, of genocide in Gaza for over a year and, since the ICJ ruling in January, have notified you of third states’ and corporations’ responsibility to act to prevent genocide. Palestinians inside the cataclysm of killing and throughout the diaspora, NGOs, UN officials and medical workers, including top surgeons like Professor Nick Maynard, have been shouting from the rooftops about the slaughter of innocents, the dangers of mass death through disease and starvation, and the deliberate destruction of infrastructure necessary to life. The Israeli government is following its plan to wipe Palestine and its people off the map and recolonise the whole area. As Leader of one of the UK’s major cities with responsibility for its reputation in history, its population’s welfare, including moral and mental wellbeing, and the allocation of its considerable financial resources, you have significant scope and authority to make an enormous difference through powerful opposition to the ongoing genocide on the basis of the principles and measures of the ICJ, a position that will have the resounding support of the vast majority of Sheffielders. Instead, you have decided to be complicit. UK politicians like
yourself continue to support the actions of Israel as it maintains its bombing blitz, blockade and extermination policy by not only constantly repeating that this is Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ but suppressing the very mention of the word ‘genocide’ amongst members of your own party.

Your status as Leader of the Council is therefore completely compromised and we call on you to consider your position: either change your standpoint or stand down in favour of someone with the courage to do the right thing.

Julie Pearn
Chair
On behalf of Sheffield Labour-movement Friends of Palestine Management Committee