“Jerusalem must remain under the exclusive sovereignty of the State of Israel… We must be constantly on the alert against ideas of internationalisation.”

So says Benny Begin, MK (member of the Israeli parliament) and senior government minister, who will be the keynote speaker on May 11 at a London celebration of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem.

This occurred in 1968, a year after Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Begin, son of the late former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, peddles the myth of an exclusive biblical Jewish right to Jerusalem although its holy sites are revered by millions of Christians and Muslims as well as Jews.

“We all know that no other nation or religion has a better claim to Jerusalem than we do,” he told Israel National News in February this year.

This unilateral Israeli annexation is marked on May 12 by a national holiday, Yom Yerushalayim, but is recognised by no serious nation. Israel’s capital is Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem.

In 1980 United Nations Resolution 478 denied Israel’s claim to East Jerusalem and instructed member states to withdraw their diplomats from the city. The UN Security Council, with U.S. support, declared the Israeli annexation of greater Jerusalem as “null and void,” the same language used in reference to Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait.

Today in defiance of international law, Israeli authorities continue their ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, destroying Palestinian homes as part of their stated aim to “Judaise” the city. The illegal settlement building continues.

Obsessed by their selective reading of the Bible as tribal myth and dogma, Likud–Herut UK, One Jerusalem, the Jewish National Fund, the Zionist Federation, Ner Yisrael Community and the Hendon United Synagogue plan a celebration in London on May 11.

We call on all who are genuinely concerned for the residents of Jerusalem, Palestinian or Israeli, to join us in condemning this event and the attitudes it glorifies.

Endorsed by:

Action Palestine

Amos Trust

Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine

Brighton and Hove Muslim Women

Dundee Trades Union Council

Friends of Al-Aqsa

Friends of Sabeel – UK

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions – UK

Jews Against Zionism

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods

Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Just Peace Leicester

King College London Action Palestine

Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine

Liverpool Friends of Palestine

Muslim Public Affairs Committee

Neturei Karta

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Scottish Friends of Palestine

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Tower Hamlets and Jenin Friendship Association

Waltham Forest PSC

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