By Tim Saunders on
A group of British stars have appeared in a new video produced by Amnesty International, speaking out against the bloodshed and violence in Gaza.
Annie Lennox, Thandie Newton, former Monty Python star Terry Jones, comedian Alexei Sayle, filmmaker Mike Figgis, designer Katharine Hamnett and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button actor Jason Flemyng all voice their support for Amnesty’s ongoing efforts to secure justice for both Palestinians and Israelis and make an impassioned call for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza in the video.
“Right now – this very minute – innocent people like you and me, children like mine and yours, are victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza,” said Thandie Newton in the film. “I want the UK government ready to initiate criminal investigations and carry out prosecutions in their own courts.”
“We’ve had a ceasefire in Gaza, a tentative ceasefire, and we now have the opportunity to get access to over 200,000 civilians who have no access to facilities,” adds Annie Lennox. “Their homes have been pulverized, they have no running water, they have no proper access to medicines, to fuel, to foods. They are desperately and urgently in need of these things and it is essential that the international aid agencies get access to the Gazan people now… In a situation like this, there are no victories. Only victims. What’s important is that we try to find a path to peace.”
More than 1,300 Palestinians died during the Israeli military offensive in December and January, but hundreds of thousands remain in desperate need of aid. It is a very real and heartbreaking humanitarian crisis. Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen hopes the film will encourage people to speak out against the war crimes and pressure the British government to make a stand.
“There’s almost a conspiracy of silence over war crimes in Gaza that’s totally unacceptable,” she said. “Speaking out is one way of trying to stop this horrible cycle of violence beginning all over again.”
Benjamin Button star Jason Flemying also appears in the video.
“This humanitarian crisis is not the result of a natural disaster,” he says in the film. “It is entirely manmade, as the result of extremely stringent Israeli blockades and international sanctions. Over 80% of the population of Gaza now relies on international aid. That compares with 10% a decade ago. The blockade guarantees bloodshed and violence.”
To view the film and learn more about the conflict and how you can help, visit the Amnesty International website.
Copyright © 2009 Look to the Stars
