UK Kurdish associations are among the many groups and associations who signed the statement Migrant and BAME Communities Speak out Against Public Silence.

The statement condemns the silence surrounding the Israeli massacres and policies towards the Palestinian people. 

The statement reads: 

“Many of us arrived in the UK as migrants and as refugees, seeking safety from war and repression, and the effects of racism, persecution and colonialism both past and present. As a result, we know their oppressive impact on our communities, and can identify where many of the current experiences of injustices we face in Britain today are also based on racism and colonialism”.

The associations said: “These problems are having a destructive impact on public discussions about race and immigration. It is therefore our responsibility – and also our right-  to relay our direct experiences of human rights abuses suffered here and abroad, as well as their structural and historical causes, to address them. This democratic obligation is recognised in Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, to “receive and impart information”, and provides the basis for a democracy to function. 

In the statement the associations said to be “deeply worried about current attempts to silence a public discussion of what happened in Palestine and to the Palestinians in 1948, when the majority of its people were forcibly expelled. These facts are well established and accessible, are part of the British historical record, as well as the direct experience of the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian community in the UK has raised the disturbing absence of key information about these past and current injustices, and highlighted the racism it exposes then and now”. 

The associations draw attention to the fact that “public discussion of these facts, and a description of these injustices, would be prohibited under the IHRA’s guidelines, and therefore withholds vital knowledge from the public. This silencing has already begun”. 

The statement ends with the following words: “We urgently remind politicians and public bodies of their responsibilities to uphold the principles of the Human Rights Act for every British citizen and resident in the UK equally, especially the direct victims of colonialism, racism, and discrimination. As migrant and BAME communities we stand as one, united against all attempts to suppress our voices and our calls for justice, freedom and equality”.

Among the signatories are associations like Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) as well as the Kurdish Student’s Union, the Kurdish Assembly in the UK, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, Roj Kurdish Women’s Assembly.

The statement has been published in the Independent.