Bournemouth is a town known for its international community with outstanding universities, language schools, and a vibrant, diverse population. It is also one of the most popular holiday destinations in England, bringing happiness to millions.

As a beacon of cultural diversity in the South as well as an area boasting formidable natural beauty, Bournemouth does not need to have its reputation tarnished by links to a town in a country run by a regime which is waging war on a largely civilian population, evicting hundreds of families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and continuing aggression and occupation in Palestine.

The Israeli state is using methods and strategies which are highly questionable at the least and, at the worst are, war crimes. These methods include but are not limited to the bombing of Gaza leaving hundreds dead, including at least 69 children, as well as economic and physical blockades that leave civilians in Gaza trapped living in prison-like conditions that have been defined as "unlivable" by the UN. This year, Israeli forces have killed, on average, one child every three days, these state-sanctioned actions and conditions should not and do not represent Bournemouth.

The routine harassment of Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem by both Israeli settlers and the police and military that support them and the merciless forced evictions of families in neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan (which are carried out despite there being no burden on the State to demonstrate that they are the rightful owners of the neighbourhoods they wish to reclaim) represents some of the recent inhumane means by which the Israeli state has oppressed the Palestinian people since its inception. These are just a few of the myriad examples of atrocious human rights violations carried out by the Israeli governments over the past 73 years.

The UK is complicit in this systematic oppression. The terror that is executed against the Palestinians is bolstered by £361 million pounds worth of arms from the UK. Palestine Solidarity BCP is aiming to take local and specific action against the Israeli state to untwin with Netanya in order to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protect and assert the unique, eclectic character of Bournemouth. 

Bournemouth should not be associated with a state who uses such callous methods to maintain unlawful domination over other human beings.