Demand that Sir Keir Starmer puts an end to arms sales to Israel - Yorkshire Post Letters

Parents in Yorkshire and all over the UK have been preparing children for the first day of the new school term, little ones for the first day at schools, mums with damp eyes, watching them, up to those starting A Level courses.

All normal here, yes. YP reading parents, think of your children and then I beg you think of children and parents in Gaza and in Ukraine. In Gaza there are few if any schools left standing. Why? Bombed by the Israelis. There are no homes for them. Why? Bombed by the Israelis.

Far fewer children to attend schools. Why? Killed by the Israelis. No hospitals to care for their wounds. Why? Bombed by the Israelis. No food. Why? Blocked by the Israelis. No water. Why? Blocked by the Israelis? Why no safe tented areas? Bombed by the Israelis.

Think too of the openly spoken words of two Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. They call for starvation to be used to encourage voluntary emigration, they would permit aid only for this purpose. Ben-Gvir says the Israeli PM backs him but Netanyahu denies this. Who is the liar? Netanyahu I suspect.

Many are asking what the government here can do to help the people of Gaza, demand, not just ask that Keir Starmer halt all arms sales to Israel now. Do it now Starmer, just for once lead. You might get into a habit of doing so.

Exert economic pressure on the Israelis, some EU states are pressing for a suspension of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement. This would hit the Israelis hard, on their economy. I have just heard on Sky News a recording of a little girl Fatima, aged five, singing a song she wants sung at her funeral, the Israelis have killed her. Parents, how many of you have five year old daughters?

The Israeli propaganda machine has a line that anyone opposed to what they are doing in Gaza is a Hamas supporting, anti-semitic Jew hater. According to many in the Conservative backing Daily Telegraph this includes the many doctors in bomb-hit Gaza hospitals, speaking out against the starvation around them.

Bombed by the Israelis, doctors from the UK. Victoria Rose for one. The US, France, Belgium, Sweden also, hard to see them as Hamas backers. I am no Hamas backer. What Hamas did on October 7 was sadistic, savage, barbarism and they boasted about it.

Parents in Yorkshire, YP readers, look into your souls and think of children and parents killed by this time tomorrow in Gaza and Ukraine. Be their voices calling out for help, heed their dying words, ask why, what wrongs have they committed and press this government to act, to stop the flow of innocent blood. Maybe an odd Tory or two will do likewise.

Recently 12 Holocaust survivors wrote an open letter to the Israeli government pleading for an end to the starvation of Children in Gaza, this among other sapient points. One said that it broke her heart to see what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza.

If many of us act like the Holocaust survivors and their moral courage which we ought to bow low to, just maybe a child, a baby, a mother in Gaza or Ukraine will not be killed. Can you think of a better reason?