Byron Friends of Palestine was established to foster awareness and support for Palestinian civil and political aspirations to sovereignty, independence and nationhood. International law allows for armed resistance against an occupying military power but unequivocally prohibits the mass murder of non-combatant civilians and thus we condemn the assault on civilians in Southern Israel by the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigade, and the indiscriminate and disproportionate response by Israel’s military forces in Gaza.
The death toll among civilians, including women and children amounts to war crimes on both sides. The right to self-determination is upheld by international law and Palestinian civil society has agreed, by a great majority, on one non-violent strategy: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, based on the model used to pressure South Africa to end Apartheid. The three main demands behind the BDS movement is an end to the occupation, the end of Apartheid in Israel and the occupied territories and the right of return of refugees displaced by Zionist settler colonialism.
Palestinian refugees are the largest refugee population in the world numbering more than six million. If we believe human rights and international law have value, we share a moral duty to divest from Israel and companies that profit from the occupation and support the cultural, sporting, academic and trade boycott of Israel. It took 30 years to achieve its goal in South Africa; the people of Palestine have waited 75 years for justice, independence, equality and nationhood.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
