Our Story by Annie L and Keith J
Keith and I met in Cameroon West Africa where we were both doing voluntary work for our respective charities. I was a physiotherapist working with disabled children, Keith was doing building work for the Mill Hill Catholic mission. We then came back to the UK, married and brought our children up in Lancaster where we've now lived for over 30 years. I have worked as a paediatric physiotherapist and in Higher Education and Keith in the NHS in Mental Health; human rights and the welfare and safeguarding of children and families have been part of our core values as a family.
For some years now Keith and I have followed geo-political news on independent media which allowed us to gain a different perspective on key events and came to understand the narrow remit and bias of traditional media sources.
The Hamas attack on October 7th prompted us to investigate the history of the Israeli/Palestinian situation. We came to realise that the Palestinian people have suffered under conditions of apartheid with abuse of human rights and forcible seizure and encroachment on their lands for over 75 years. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) was asked to reach a judgement on the Israeli response to October 7th which to date has resulted in 40,000 Palestinian deaths 16,000 of these being children. The ICJ decided that Palestinians in Gaza had plausible rights under the Genocide convention, it concluded that they were at real risk of irreparable damage - and Israel should take steps to prevent genocide from occurring while these critical issues remain in question. Additionally it ruled that Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its "illegal" occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible. Despite these rulings Keith and I have watched with horror as Israel has proceeded with the war which seems intent on the destruction of infrastructure such as hospitals, Universities and schools and where there has been no safe space provided for Palestinian civilians.
The political will to put pressure on Israel to cease fire has seemed feeble to put it mildly, and western governments are complicit in this atrocity by their inaction. Keith and I have found comfort with like-minded people in Lancaster who have been prepared to stand in the market square each Saturday to protest and show support for the Palestinian people, share knowledge, bear witness to events and put pressure on our government to do more. This, we have felt, is the least we can do when a genocide is taking place before our eyes on social media.