International flotillas will not help those in Gaza

In Zoe Lawlor’s latest denial of reality, she inserts herself in the narrative of Palestinian victimisation claiming to have been “attacked and kidnapped in international waters while sailing to Gaza, robbed and repeatedly strip searched, imprisoned for a week, shot at with steel-coated rubber bullets and tear gas” (Letters, 9 November).

If Ms Lawlor truly believes that her brief detention bears any relationship to the genuine hardship faced by thousands of Gazans on a daily basis, she is truly deluded.

By writing this from the safety of an office, she shows the disconnect of an IPSC campaign which seeks to depict itself as members of a heroic freedom struggle, when in fact, it’s members are for the most part armchair warriors more interested in a hard-left polemic than the genuine suffering of Gazans.

In June of this year, the head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, spoke out against the latest flotilla planning to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying it won’t help ease “dire” conditions in the Palestinian enclave.

He continues to believe that a flotilla will not help to address the dire situation in Gaza and reiterates his calls on the government of Israel to lift all closures, with due consideration of Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

Listening to the Secretary General, it is clear that the actions of irresponsible individuals who continue to try and provoke a hostile response from Israel is in fact undermining UN efforts to negotiate a better future for Gaza.

Kevin McCarthy,

Kinsale,

Co Cork