President Michael D Higgins has called on the United Nations General Assembly to use “exceptional powers” to “move past” the impasse at the organisation’s Security Council to enable the flow of aid to Gaza.
Mr Higgins also criticised a £1.5 billion arms investment, announced earlier this week by UK prime minister Keir Starmer. Mr Higgins claimed the move will “make drones 10 times more lethal”.
He was speaking at the University of Galway to mark the donation of his presidential archive and collection of books to the college.
Speaking in the newly renamed Michael D Higgins Auditorium, the President criticised the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed organisation, which has distributed a limited amount of aid in southern Gaza this week. The GHF has been heavily criticised by world figures for politicising the distribution of aid.
Aid distribution at GHF centres was paused earlier this week following a number of incidents where Israeli soldiers are reported to have fired on people seeking food.
“The entity that is in place [the GHF], and has been described as one that will distribute aid to the people of Gaza, is not acceptable to any of the United Nations agencies,” Mr Higgins said.
He said it is “essential” that food is distributed through non-militarised means.
“What is most important now, is that next week when the General Assembly [of the UN] meets, it uses the exceptional powers that it has to actually act. It has the power to move past the Security Council,” he said.
Turning to the UK’s arms investment announcement, he said it is “not moral to be silent” in the current political climate. UK defence secretary John Healey told MPs on Monday that the £1.5 billion investment would make the British army “10 times more lethal”.
“The prime minister next door [Keir Starmer] says: ‘We are going to produce drones that are 10 times more lethal.’ Think of the morality of that statement,” said Mr Higgins.
“It is necessary to say that we are not going to retreat from new versions of ecological responsibility, social justice and equality,” he said.
The president said “monstrous attacks” are being made against third-level institutions, especially in the United States.
He said we are living in the “worst period” for “ignorant, ill-informed bullying”, with universities put “under the greatest pressure internationally, but in particular in the United States where they have had monstrous attacks on them”, he said.
Mr Higgins is a former lecturer and president of the students’ union at the University of Galway. He confirmed he intends to return to living in Galway when his presidential term ends.
