The natural resources of Gaza and the West Bank belong to the Palestinian People. This is established international law. But Israel doesn't care about the law and continues to kill Palestinians under its illegal occupation while it simultaneously sells licenses to oil and gas companies.

In addition to the applicable international law, there is other legal precedent for stripping criminals of any financial proceeds from their crimes. The fundamental moral principle behind laws like these must be applied to the case of Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people.

We are a group of humans who firmly believe that a primary motivation behind Israel’s current destruction of Gaza and the Palestinians it has held under siege for 17 years, is to gain complete control of the region's estimated “hundreds of billions of dollars” worth of gas reserves. These resources belong to the Palestinian people.

Countries like the US and UK primarily support Israel because it is an illegally expanding settler colonial state that controls the region’s resources and occupies strategic geography. The 75 years of funding and immunity from sanctions for war crimes that Western countries have provided Israel, most notably the US by sabotaging the effectiveness of international law (for eg, the 56 vetos made at the UN Security Council) has resulted in ever-escalating levels of impunity from Israel, reaching to this year’s finding by the International Court of Justice that there is plausible proof that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

In the midst of an ongoing trial at the ICJ for genocide, Israel is currently defying the provisional measures that have been issued against it and, instead, is escalating its attacks against the civilian population living under its occupation.

While it carpet bombs Gaza, cutting off everything including food, water, electricity, and medical aid, it has also sold exploratory rights to Gaza’s gas and natural resources by granting at least 12 licenses to six corporations from the Western countries providing cover for its war crimes. These include British Petroleum, Eni, Dana Petroleum, Ratio Energies, Solar, and NewMed. These atrocities cannot be allowed to stand.

Too much blood has been shed because Israel has been given unfettered power to control land that far exceeds the 1967 borders that had been carved out of Palestine and given for its creation. The world and every single one of the institutions we have set up to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide have so far failed to stop the rogue extremist Israeli government. But there is power in people coming together to do what is right.

What is right is to make sure that future revenues from Gaza’s gas reserves (and any other natural resource on occupied Palestinian territory, including revenue from a future canal abutting Gaza) go to the Palestinian People. What is right is that all countries, including the US and the UK, negotiate with the Palestinian People over their resources and strategic geography instead of with the Israeli government.

Palestinians have always had justice on their side but without power, justice is useless. Israel, since its creation 75 years ago, has had power over Palestinians and because it wields that power unjustly, its military occupation against them has always been violent.

Please sign this petition. We the People, in our millions and in our billions, have the power to make this happen. We can be the change that makes this happen. Please sign and share.