Press Release by Islington Friends of Yibna

Vigil at Foreign Secretary Miliband's Primrose Hill house: TODAY 2PM


A group of Islington residents and supporters of Yibna will hold a vigil in front of the house of David Miliband in Primrose Hill. They will protest against the appeasement by Foreign Secretary Miliband of the 2 week long Israeli blitz of Gaza.


Details follow below:

The inhabitants of Yibna refugee camp in Gaza, near the border with Egypt, were threatened and ordered by Israeli forces to leave the refugee camp. The message was clear, the intention is to bomb the camp to the ground. Fearing for their lives, 20,000 of Yibna's residents were forced to leave Yibna on Tuesday 6 January.

Jenny Linnel, a British ISM volunteer in Rafah said, "Shortly before midnight on the 6th of January, missiles began raining down on Rafah in one of the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the current atrocities began. Continuous sorties pounded the southern Gaza city for over 12 hours. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged, especially in the neighbourhoods along the border with Egypt."

By leaving Yibna, many of the impoverished camp's inhabitants would be made refugees for the third time, after having been forced out of their homes in 1948, and ethnic cleansed into Gaza. They were left to live in the refugee camp and then during 2003-4, a massive Israeli house demolition programme made 17,000 of the refugees in Yibna homeless for a second time. In the last few days, the remaining refugees in Yibna have been thrown out to the mercy of the bitter cold and the constant shelling and bombardment by the Israeli occupying forces.

Since 2007, a group of Islington residents have stretched a practical hand of friendship between Islington and Yibna refugee camp. In their latest practical initiative, against all the odds, just a few days before the Israeli blitz of Gaza, Islington Friends of Yibna [IFY] delivered a consignment of high protein baby milk to Yibna to feed malnourished babies. IFY Patron MP Jeremy Corbyn of Islington was phoning a group of friends in Yibna when there was an explosion and the line went dead. The next day he found out that 2 of his friends were killed in the bombing that he was almost witness to.

The vigil today [Friday] by supporters of Islington Friends of Yibna in front of the house of Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Primrose Hill will be in protest against the continued refusal of the Foreign Secretary to denounce outright Israel for the bombardment and demand that Israel unconditionally and immediately stop the bombardment. This destruction of people and life in Gaza could have been prevented had the Foreign Secretary not appeased Israel. Instead he blamed the Palestinian victims for the Israeli aggression against them.

There is still hope to save parts of Yibna, not all of the houses have been destroyed yet. The UN Resolution allows Israel to carry on with its bombing campaign until other conditions and agreements are met. IFY asks Foreign Secretary Miliband to be brave and take a principled and moral stand and ask Israel to immediately stop the bombing. Through his long silence Israel is being allowed to continue with the bombing and still has more time to complete its plan for the total destruction of Yibna. We believe that if Miliband speaks out now, he would save Yibna from complete destruction.

IFY urges Miliband to call upon Israel to unconditionally and immediately stop the bombing.


Vigil at Foreign Secretary Miliband's house: Edis Street, Primrose Hill NW1 8LE: TODAY 2PM

__________________________________________________

 http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2009/010809/letters010809_05.html

Time to show solidarity with the Palestinian people

Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 8 January 2009

___________________________________________________

Yael Kahn

Islington Friends of Yibna [Chair]

PO Box 58246

London N1 2UE

07880 731 865

07977 490 415

 Islington_Yibna@yahoo.co.uk