26 July 2006 - Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has joined thousands of peace campaigners in calling on Tony Blair to demand an immediate ceasefire in the two-week Lebanon conflict.

Nearly 500 people have been killed since Israel launched its bombardment of Lebanon a fortnight ago, the vast majority Lebanese civilians. But backed only by Israel and the US , the British Government – which has approved the sale of £25m worth of arms to Israel in the last 18 months – has refused to call for an immediate ceasefire in the region.

Dr Lucas, who is also a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s national council and Green Party Principal Speaker, said: “A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Lebanon . Israel is allegedly using illegal cluster bombs and phosphorous weapons – and has already created a refugee crisis of huge proportions and caused an estimated £1bn-worth of damage to civilian infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports, media outlets and electricity and clean water supplies.

“This is barbaric – and a clear breach of international law. I have joined the thousands calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and withdrawal from Gaza – by all parties to the conflict – because it’s clear that Blair and Beckett’s response to the crisis has been inadequate and irresponsible to the point of placing the UK, along with the US and Israel, in a new, deadly, ‘axis of evil’ which has caused the deaths of innocent women and children and the worsening of prospects for peace in the region.”

The letter, which has been organised by the Stop the War Coalition and CND, will be hand delivered to Downing Street during a ‘Ceasefire NOW!’ protest in Whitehall , London , from 5pm this Friday, July 28 th .

Dr Lucas, who is also a co-president of the European Parliament’s cross-party Peace Initiatives group, added: “Of course we condemn the violence on all sides and call on Israel and Hezbollah to cease all military actions, which are indiscriminately killing civilians – and forcing them to flee their homes – and as such clearly breach international law.

“The UK must do everything in its power to ensure international law is fully respected in the Middle East, by all players – including not just Israel and Hezbollah but the US and UK too. As long as our troops are being used to prop up the illegal US occupation in Iraq we can’t expect to be treated as impartial peacemakers in the region.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The letter in full reads:

DEAR PRIME MINISTER,

Most people in this country are horrified at the bloodshed and destruction unfolding daily in Lebanon. There can be no justification for the conduct of the Israeli government and armed forces, which are laying waste to a country in an operation which will hugely damage the prospects for peace in the Middle East .

We are dismayed that the British government, almost alone in the world, is not calling for a ceasefire to enable the suffering to stop. This either shows a deplorable indifference to the plight of the Lebanese people or an attitude of total subservience to the foreign policy of the US administration. Either way, our country is being humiliated and our isolation from world opinion underlined once more.

We therefore call on the government to change its position and join the vast majority of the world’s states, the UN secretary-general and the Archbishop of Canterbury in calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Lebanon to save lives and prevent the destruction of that country.

Yours etc.