Letters to the Editor: Diplomacy needed to avert disaster in Yemen

Smoke rises after Saudi-led airstrikes on an army base in Sanaa, Yemen. Picture: AP Photo/Hani Mohammed

People in Yemen are starving to death; they are dying in hospitals, homes, and on the roadsides while fleeing to safety.

Many severely undernourished children who make it to the safety of the overcrowded Hodeidah Hospital on the Red Sea coast still die as their bodies are so weakened with starvation. According to the director of the UN World Food Programme 400,000 Yemini children are at risk of dying and 11m children need aid in the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The UN estimates that 50% of healthcare facilities have shut down in a conflict that has displaced more than 3.6m people, over 80% of which are women and children. The coronavirus pandemic runs rampant among such dysfunctionality.

Meanwhile 14 tankers laden with vital humanitarian aid and fuel have been stranded for two months in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast due to the US-backed Saudi blockade. Hundreds of lorries laden with aid are stuck on the road to the supply gateway of Hodeidah port, unable to progress due to lack of fuel.

This is an appalling vista in a country on the verge of a catastrophic famine where 90% of its food is imported. No doubt the situation is complex and there have been atrocities on both sides in this war but ultimately the Yemini people are the suffering pawns in a proxy war between Iran-backed Houthis and the US-backed Saudi and UAE regimes where humanitarian aid is now being used as a weapon of war. US President Biden’s efforts since his inauguration are welcome but if he is serious about stopping this war then more decisive action is needed. The Saudi blockade must be lifted. All arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE should be suspended. A vast humanitarian aid relief effort should be accompanied by a ceasefire and a plan to hold peace talks.

The Taoiseach could use the opportunity of the St Patrick’s Day online meeting to impress upon Mr Biden the urgent necessity to end this brutal war immediately. He could suggest that the only US Military planes that will be allowed through Shannon Airport after St Patrick’s Day will be those filled with humanitarian aid and aid workers on route to Yemen; a small gesture of recompense to offset the US supported carnage of the last six years.

Jim Roche

PRO Irish Anti-War Movement, PO Box 9260,

Dublin 1

Israel not responsible for failures of Palestinian Authority

Ireland has a tendency to blame Israel for every misfortune that falls on the Palestinians. Brian Ó Éigeartaigh‘s letter — ‘Israel’s refusal to vaccinate Palestinians’ (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 13) is just the latest example.

We ignore the Oslo Accords, under which the Palestinian Authority (PA) took on responsibility for healthcare, including vaccination programmes. We ignore the statements of Palestinian leaders, who said that they do not expect to receive Covid vaccines from Israel and that they were making arrangements to buy their own supplies.

We ignore the fact that when the PA received its first batch of vaccines, some were diverted to treat PA government ministers, the Palestinian soccer team and the Jordanian royal court, rather than healthcare workers.

The PA is not short of money. It pays monthly stipends and cash grants to Palestinians who are convicted by Israel of involvement in terror attacks in Israel, and to the families of dead terrorists. 

The deadlier the terror attack, the richer the reward. The estimated amount of such payments in 2020 alone was more than €130m. 

The Palestinians suffer under the mismanagement of a corrupt government that last held elections in 2006. 

It would serve the Palestinian people much better if, instead of blaming Israel, we demanded that the PA act like the government of the state to which it allegedly aspires.

Teresa Trainor

Dublin 16

Indulging Christians increases Covid risks

In response to Ray Kinsella’s letter — ‘Closed churches an affront to Christians’ (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 13) — not everyone in this country is a Christian or church goer but everyone is vulnerable to Covid-19 and everyone has to shop. The last thing people shopping need is meeting other shoppers who may have become infected in church.

People saw what happened at Christmas; do they want a repeat at Easter?

John Williams

Clonmel

Martin’s fear of Sinn Féin is out of touch

The polls show Fianna Fáil languishing at around 12% and the party is back where it was a decade ago when Micheál Martin became the leader.

There won’t be a heave to dump him until the autumn — that would give time for a new leader to be in place to become tánaiste in late 2022.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD speaking to media before a cabinet meeting at Government Buildings, Dublin. 

Whoever takes over will be important for Northern Ireland. That’s not just because a Fianna Fáil leader’s position is critical in the coalition government but there should be a sea change in Fianna Fáil’s policy towards northern nationalists and the Good Friday Agreement. Micheál Martin’s pathological fear and loathing of Sinn Féin as a mortal danger to his party means he is out touch with his dealings on northern politics and a new approach is needed.

Noel Harrington

Kinsale

Co Cork

FG feels above accountability

It beggars belief that Minister Heather Humphreys would say that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar should not stand aside. Can she please explain why.

Wouldn’t that be the normal protocol for any TD in the same situation irrespective of the political parties involved?

But no, it’s the Fine Gael mindset that they are above accountability..

Party leader Leo Varadkar is facing a criminal investigation by the gardaí.

Imagine if that was a member of Sinn Féin and the demands that would be coming from Fine Gael.

Seamus Ward

Dundalk

Co Louth

Varadkar must resign his position

Leo Varadkar’s position as Tánaiste should be suspended because of the situation he is in.

Fine Gael needs to terminate his leadership of the Fine Gael party.

The leaking of confidential documents is not OK and, for whatever the reason, it is never justifiable.

Gardaí have confirmed an investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the disclosure of a confidential Government document by the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

Leo Varadkar needs to be made accountable. The people of Ireland deserve better. To represent your country and its people you need to do so with the upmost integrity.

Leo Varadkar has failed to do this. He needs to resign his position and stop insulting Ireland and its people.

Frank Burke

Cobh

Cork

Don’t demonise white Irish people

Alison O’Connor writes that Irish people such as myself are oblivious of the fact that our skin colour is the “norm” — ‘Is it enough simply not to be racist? Should we offer more support?’ (Irish Examiner, March 12).

According to my dictionary “norm” means usual, typical, or standard. Growing up in Ireland in the 1960s Ireland was 100% white. It is now still probably 95% white. That is my “norm”. In Nigeria my equivalent’s “norm” would be black.

Irish commentators need to be careful that they don’t demonise white people. That will only encourage racial division and conflict.

Karl Martin

Bayside

Dublin 13

Charities should be allowed to open

Various governments have been letting our country go slowly down the drain for many years, decades even.

If our government was doing any sort of reasonable job, we would not need more than 10,000 registered charities to try to keep the country going.

Perhaps one of the many very well paid TDs or one of the hundreds of very well paid civil servants could explain why they thought it would help anything to close these vital organisations as one of their various irrational pandemic rules. It is even more ridiculous than not allowing people to get healthy on golf courses or celebrate Easter Sunday in church.

Richard Barton

Maynooth

Co Kildare

Take Irish to heart

With regard to the status of Irish in our schools, maybe it’s time we stopped using the word ‘compulsory’, with all its punitive and repressive connotations — ‘Two-thirds of students say Irish should stay compulsory’ (Irish Examiner, March 11).

Maths and English are never referred to as ‘compulsory’ but are described as ‘core subjects’. Surely this would be a much better way to refer to Irish as well? By a happy coincidence, the Irish for ‘core’ is ‘croí’ — which is also the Irish for ‘heart’. Given the positive sentiments expressed about Irish in schools in the recent student survey, the term ‘croí-ábhar’ would indicate not just the centrality of our language in our education system, but also the fact that, as Irish people with a rich linguistic heritage stretching back over 2,000 years, it is at the heart of how we live, and who we are.

Síle de Cléir

Co Luimnigh