Sir, – Ireland’s leadership and voice at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting today is critical. We must continue to call for all parties to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities in Israel and Gaza. We must continue to invoke international humanitarian law into all negotiations. We must unite EU member states around the principle of protecting civilians.
We are no longer at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding; it is now happening before our eyes. Food, water and medical supplies are running out and Dóchas members and their partners are struggling to stay safe, let alone support communities. Safe shelter and humanitarian assistance for civilians displaced by conflict is an obligation under international humanitarian law.
The EU must facilitate peaceful measures for the resolution of this conflict, the provision of humanitarian assistance and the protection of civilians. – Yours, etc,
JANE-ANN McKENNA,
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CEO,
Dóchas – The Irish Network for International Development and
Humanitarian Organisations,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – An unforeseen consequence of the terrible events in Gaza and Israel has been the realisation that the EU institutions, in particular the European Commission, are in urgent need of a reset in terms of their functionality and democratic credentials. First, to the consternation of member states, the Hungarian commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement unilaterally declared that aid to the Palestinians was being suspended. That decision was quickly reversed by EU foreign ministers and by their chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, who declared that the “overwhelming majority”of EU states were in favour of continued support. This was followed by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, travelling to Israel and effectively taking over the foreign affairs portfolio from the European Council. As reported, in her discussions with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Ms von der Leyen did not urge restraint or the need for Israel to obey the rules of war and to respect the lives and dignity of ordinary citizens in Gaza (“Concern over von der Leyen’s stance on Gaza”, World, October, 14th).
This approach has been adopted by our own Government and by most EU member states, as well as by the US administration, but unfortunately not by the British government.
One can assume that the voices of those who believe that EU citizens should directly elect the president of the European Commission will grow even louder. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – The slaughter of innocent people at the Bataclan theatre in Paris, the Manchester Arena, and now at the Supernova Festival in Israel must remain on everyone’s minds the next time they go out for an evening’s entertainment.
Think of those lost – and hope for peace. It takes little to empathise with the families and friends of those lost when you imagine something happening like that at the Electric Picnic. – Yours, etc,
DEARBHLA HOFFMAN,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Some of the Israeli victims reported on in the recent media broadcasts in the aftermath of the Hamas massacres are named.
Some details of the lives are presented as well as testimonies from their loved ones and that of righteous anger in the wake of their killing.
Their lives are depicted as having value and they appear as full human beings.
How therefore do we characterise the mounting numbers of Palestinian dead?
Have not these people names, loved ones who mourn, those who would wish to avenge their deaths?
Can the media strive equally to render them as fully human? Or is there the danger of a media complicit in the narrative of Israel’s desire for revenge?
Will this bias, conscious or otherwise, seek to reduce and diminish these Palestinian humans, rendering them smaller, lesser and other.
Does this leave us incapable of fully conceiving of the dire consequences for Palestinian people in any subsequent action or operation undertaken by the Israeli military? – Yours, etc,
NIALL COLLEARY,
Ballisodare,
Co Sligo.
Sir, – Any reasonable person who reads the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” knows what this means and are repulsed by it – the total destruction of the Jewish state and the deaths of millions of innocent Israelis. Hamas acting as Iran’s ersatz army are not freedom fighters; they are oppressors of their own people and murderous terrorists of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN KENNY,
Baltinglass,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Israel will fight by its rules, ignoring the meaningless calls for restraint and proportionality. It is determined to eradicate Hamas by reducing Gaza to a pile of rubble unfit for habitation. Killing thousands of innocent civilians is considered just collateral damage.
What is the probable outcome? The war will widen and become protracted. Thousands more innocents on both sides will die. Infrastructural damage will be enormous. The Palestinians will be left broken, homeless and alone, sacrificed to appease Israel. It will all eventually end by negotiated settlement but the underlying increased hatred will continue to simmer, indefinitely. – Yours, etc,
M STAPLETON,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Last year I made a radio documentary for Newstalk called Fighting on Two Fronts. I interviewed several Palestinian women who openly talked about their dual struggle of living under the horrors of Israeli occupation and Hamas all at once.
Under the occupation, they live a life of fear and uncertainty where their movements and access to even electricity are limited under the constant threat of invasion. Under Hamas, as Palestinian women they live under a patriarchal system of sharia law in which the legal age of marriage is just 14 and gender-based violence is common place.
It is them that I feel sorry for now as Hamas and Israel demonstrate how an eye for an eye makes everyone blind. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KENNY,
Ballinrobe,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – Following the Hamas breakout from Gaza and the war crimes committed against civilians in southern Israel, many European countries, including Ireland, and the United States rushed to support Israel’s “right to defend itself”.
What does that mean in practice? It means war crimes and slaughter. So far in Gaza, we have seen the deliberate killing of children and many more Palestinian civilians. What is coming doesn’t bear thinking about. The Israeli state has inflicted terror and death on the ordinary people of Gaza many times in the past.
My own experience of Israeli “self-defence” has not been a pleasant one. In May 2010, I was on an unarmed flotilla of ships bringing aid and solidarity to Gaza when Israeli forces attacked killing nine of our civilian colleagues and mortally wounding another.
This is what “self-defence” has always meant to Israel and, infuriatingly, those western countries that came out so strongly behind the rogue state of Israel are entirely aware of this. For that reason, they are all complicit in what follows. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE
Lucan,
Co Dublin.