Palestinian campaign reaches out to parliamentarians

By Hasan Esen

LONDON (AA) – A campaign to raise awareness about racism towards Palestinians in Israeli public life is trying to reach out to parliamentarians across Europe.

“Hundreds of European parliamentarians had been contacted as part of the campaign’s goal to end the silence on Israeli racism and discrimination towards Palestinians,” said Zaher Birawi, chairman of the EuroPal Forum, a pro-Palestine group.

The media campaign ‘Israeli Racism in Quotes’, which was launched two weeks ago, is marking the 71st anniversary of the “Nakba” (Catastrophe) and focuses on using imagery to raise awareness about the extent of the discrimination towards Palestinians in Israeli public life.

A key part of this initiative, which since its launch has consisted of the daily release of imagery and the sending of letters to human rights organizations and politicians, is the direct targeting of politicians across Europe with the intention of fostering awareness about the discriminatory rhetoric that is rife in Israeli politics and among the country’s spiritual leaders, a statement from EuroPal said.

“These politicians have been contacted with the expressed request to use their agency to take action against the leaders of the occupying state who have issued these statements contrary to the values enshrined in international law, norms and conventions,” Birawi told Anadolu Agency.

The forum has contacted hundreds of parliamentarians across Europe, including in Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the U.K. “to make some headway towards dispelling the myth that Israel is a democracy”.

“In this light, EuroPal quoted over 65 anti-Palestinian policies, such as the Nation-State Law, that provided ample evidence of a discriminatory policy program geared towards the structural and constitutional subordination of Palestinian rights,” according to a statement from the forum.

Birawi added that the EuroPal Forum’s ‘Israeli Racism in Quotes’ campaign will continue for at least a month and will be followed by a series of seminars across European parliaments that will look at the roots of Israel’s racism towards the Palestinians and how such racism plays out in practice.

He said politicians in the Western world should stop their double standards vis-à-vis the Palestine question and raise their voice against these derogatory statements as they do against instances of racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

At present, EuroPal is releasing one visual per day on its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter platforms.