AS A former independent parliamentary candidate for Ealing Central and Acton who campaigned for justice for the Palestinian people, I wish to record my support for the 600 peace activists, including the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, of Northern Ireland, and a Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, 85, who were on board the flotilla of ships taking humanitarian aid to Gaza that was attacked by Israeli commandoes on Sunday.

At the same time, I wish to add my voice to those of millions of others who have condemned the attack in which more than a dozen peace activists died. Three days earlier, on May 29, six Palestinians had also died in an explosion in a smuggling tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

These activists paid the ultimate price for trying to take the badly needed basic items, including food and medicine, to the 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children who have been the victims of collective punishment since 2007, when Israel and Egypt imposed a total blockade of Gaza.

It must be noted that collective punishment is illegal under international humanitarian law. According to the UN, tens of thousands of Palestinian children are not only malnourished, but they are missing out on education as a direct result of the blockade.

I welcome the coalition government's promise that 'we will push for peace in the Middle East, with a secure and universally recognised Israel living alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state'.

However, given the recent Israeli attack on the humanitarian ships, David Cameron and Nick Clegg must recognise that 1.5 million people in Gaza will not live on promises alone. We must apply our unparalleled diplomatic network to lift the blockade as a matter of urgency.

The UK is the only country which is concurrently a leading member of several influential regional and international organisations, including the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), and the United Nations Security Council. We are also a major shareholder in both the World Bank and in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

We have moral and political responsibilities to use our influence in all these organisations to end the blockade. After all, Palestine was ruled under a British mandate, effectively our colony, until the 1948 partition. The collective punishment of 1.5 million has become an intolerable affront to our civilised values.

SAM AKAKI Messaline Avenue

Acton