Dear Prime Minister,

We are British-Iranians and at this moment we are overcome with grief.

For decades we have been hoping for the day when Iranian democracy can finally flourish. Many of us have not been able to visit Iran for years for fear of imprisonment or worse. Nobody can claim to want the end of the Islamic Republic more than we do.

But attacking the country in this way will have the opposite effect. It will entrench the authoritarians and give life to the fiction that has sustained them internally for decades: that they are fighting western imperialism.

When Netanyahu - a man charged with international war crimes after killing countless civilians in Gaza - assassinates Iran's dictator that kills the man but immortalises the myth. Iranians wanted him tried and punished for his crimes, not given the martyr ending he craved.

When Netanyahu says to Iranians "do not sit with your arms crossed" but instead to rise up and "finish the job" he reveals the racism that underpins his policy, as if 90 million people had been idly waiting several decades for his bombs.

This is of course not just Netanyahu's war, Trump and the US are a significant part of it. But as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "The president made the very wise decision — we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties". So the US followed Netanyahu into this war.

Britain however doesn't have to follow Netanyahu down the path of bombing schools, hospitals, sports grounds and pharmaceuticals manufacturers. Britain doesn't have to follow Netanyahu in smuggling weapons into the country and arming separatist groups in the hope of sowing anarchy.

A pro-democracy policy would protect political prisoners and ensure that Israel and the US do not bomb prisons like Evin. It is in those cells where the future democratic leaders of Iran reside. A pro-democracy policy would smuggle internet devices - not weapons - across the border, and break the blackout that is blanketing the country. A pro-democracy policy would call out Israel's assassination policy even when it targets leaders we despise.

There is so much that can be done in solidarity with Iranians. But joining in with Netanyahu's forever wars is not it.