Sir, - My family-in-law live in the West Bank towns of Ramallah andNablus. Every day I watch the news broadcasts and read the newspapers.I wait to see their names come up on the television screen or in thenewspapers, stating that they have been shot dead, injured or blown up.
Meanwhile, we seem to sit here in the Western world, watching orreading about such tragedies, "semi-sanitised" by the destruction ofhuman rights in the name of Israel.
I have heard stories of how it is to live under a feeling ofconstant threat of death or injury; to have no employment because yourshops/small businesses have closed down due to a constant disruption ofthe economy; to not be able to send your children to school because theschools are shut once again due to an Israeli military action; to beliving from hand to mouth; to not be allowed to do your job and to seethe simple basics of life slip away from you, and to be completely atthe mercy of the Israeli army.
Some members of my family lived through the initial formation ofIsrael, losing their land and homes, only 54 years ago. They then livedthrough further occupation of their country 19 years later. Then theysaw a withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces out of the West Bank andGaza strip area, in the past couple of years, only to begin to see itall taken away from them again under the name of Ariel Sharon andIsrael. The despair and depression amongst these peoples is massive,and no wonder.
Can anyone tell me where is the voice of Amnesty International inthis scenario? Where is the voice of the European Union against thisflagrant abuse of human rights? Where is the voice of the UnitedNations, an organisation meant to protect human rights across theworld? Where is the voice of America, a country, which incidentally hasbeen financing Israel with a massive military might, since Israel wasformed in 1948, but applauds itself on standing up for people's humanrights?
Palestinians continue to be seen as the black sheep in the eyes ofthe Western world when it comes to basic human rights. Remember theintervention in the former Yugoslavia in the name of human rights?Remember people used to boycott South African produce in the name ofhuman rights? Isn't it time the same happened as regards the sale ofIsraeli produce in our shops here in Ireland? - Yours, etc.,
Newbridge,
Co Kildare.