The killing of Palestinian children is not self-defence

The NUI Galway Palestine Solidarity Society condemns Ireland’s abstention from the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on the Gaza enquiry.

Ambassador Patricia O’Brien’s reasoning is deeply problematic and the reaction of the people of Ireland to the atrocities, as evidenced by spontaneous protests, shows that she is out of step with opinion.

In abstaining from the vote, O’Brien did two things: (1) She reinforced the culture of impunity that surrounds Israel’s colonial policies towards Palestine, a culture that has led to the current atrocities. (2) She has rejected the demand that Israel immediately end “its illegal closure of the occupied Gaza Strip”, and that the international community “provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance and services to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip”.

O’Brien says the resolution is not the most efficient reaction to the crisis. With 1,000 Palestinians murdered, 4,000 injured and 140,000 displaced, it is the duty of those nations who have a voice to stand in solidarity with the besieged Palestinians. The resolution also backs Israel’s right to self-defence. Israel is not acting in self-defence. Children aren’t attacked on a beach in self-defence; hospitals aren’t shelled in self-defence; homes aren’t destroyed in self-defence; electricity, water and sanitation services aren’t cut off in self-defence. Resistance to a brutal system of occupation, colonialism and apartheid is self-defence.

Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird

Joseph Loughnane

Gerard Madden

Ciarán Maher

Committee members

NUI Galway Palestine Solidarity Society