Letters to the Editor: UN calls for temporary pause but what Gaza needs is a permanent ceasefire
A photo taken on Monday of the destruction left in and around the Shifa Hospital by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. Picture:Mohammed Hajjar/AP
Last week, the UN Security Council — after nearly six months of unspeakable carnage in Gaza — eventually passed a resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire”, following a decision by the US not to exercise its veto, as it had done in October, December, and February.
Of course, the US abstention did not stop its representative, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, from attempting to undermine the resolution — mendaciously suggesting that it has no binding force.
This effort to cast the resolution as non-binding was immediately rejected by UN legal experts, but it is surely still the case that the mountain has brought forth a mouse.
Clapping and congratulations ensued across the room as the resolution passed, but the bar had been set low and the “ceasefire” demanded is simply for a couple of weeks until the end of Ramadan, though a “lasting” cessation is hoped for.
Regrettably, the resolution insists on a temporary pause in the killing rather than the permanent and complete ceasefire that is required.
In short, it is another indication of how badly the “international community” is failing the beleaguered people of Gaza.
More importantly, what will be done now to enforce the will of the UN Security Council?
Israel is certain to ignore the resolution and Benjamin Netanyahu seems determined to press ahead with the planned assault on Rafah.
The mass slaughter and deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians is ongoing, and Israeli forces have even blocked UNRWA from delivering vital aid to famine-affected areas in northern Gaza.
Over the past few months, we have heard many states — including Ireland — loudly condemn Israel’s behaviour.
However, as UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently highlighted, there has been almost no purposeful action.
On the contrary, the US and Germany — Israel’s main arms suppliers — have continued to send the munitions used to kill Palestinian civilians on an industrial scale.
Like the UN Security Council, the EU has requested a humanitarian pause, but there is no sign that it plans to use its economic power against Israel to achieve even this.
Will the “international community” do something purposeful now?
Or has Gaza become, in the words of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, a “graveyard for tens of thousands of people and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of (international) humanitarian law”?
Once again viewers watching the Dublin vs Derry League 1 final were subjected to scenes of “violence” unbecoming a “family sport”.
This has become a weekly occurrence on TV, and it seems the senior management of GAA takes no action.
Visitors from abroad watched the game with me. They were “shocked” and “horrified”, and took videos of the violence to show to friends when they return home.
Your report ‘There is a new callousness in this country towards vulnerable people’ (Irish Examiner, April 2) highlights the need for action on racism in the workplace.
Twenty-five years ago this year, Ireland established an Equality Authority to promote the implementation of a new Employment Equality Act, which prohibited discrimination in the workplace on nine grounds, including race. Two years later this prohibition on discrimination was extended to access to goods, services and facilities.
In the early 2000s, Ireland and its Equality Authority were among Europe’s leaders in promoting equality in and out of the workplace. Despite this, in 2008, the government of the day decided to cut the authority’s budget by 43%, provoking a crisis in the organisation from which it never really recovered.
When a new government came into office in 2011, it promised to resurrect the work of the Equality Authority through a merger with the Human Rights Commission in a new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which was finally set up in 2014.
However, the central focus on implementing equality legislation was not adequately reflected in the new organisation’s founding legislation, nor in its activities since.
The recent resignation of the chief commissioner of IHREC gives the new Taoiseach’s government an important opportunity to redesign IHREC to address this. This will anyway be required under new EU Directives on Standards for Equality Bodies which will be finalised in May.
These new directives provide a much stronger legal framework for the work of national equality bodies, to ensure their effective implementation of equality law
IHREC probably does not need a full-time chief commissioner who is essentially the chairperson and spokesperson of the commission, and who does not really have a wider executive role.
However, IHREC most certainly does need new legislative and organisational provisions to ensure it meets its equality mandate under EU law.
As the commission approaches its 10th birthday later this year, making these changes a priority would really be something to celebrate.
Is Diageo’s latest 6c increase in the price of a pint of Guinness an April Fools’ joke?
If not, it will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of drinkers just as summertime arrives.
The thirst for long leisurely evenings and a pint of plain, al fresco, has been cruelly quenched by Diageo’s black deed.
This latest increase, added to 12c and 4c increases in 2023, is enough to drive anyone to drink. The average price of a pint will increase to at least €5.70 from April 15.
However, as publicans’ overheads have also increased, the price of a pint of the ebony nectar could reach €6, or more in urban areas — €20 will scarcely cover a round of drinks for a man and his two mates.
The price increase reminds me of my late father’s description of our family pub as “an oasis of social interaction and erudite conversation”.
He defined his ideal customer as one who drank two or three pints of Guinness, discussing football, greyhounds, and horse racing.
When the price of the pint was increased, dad reluctantly broke the bad news, placing the blame firmly at the door of Diageo. Despite the increase, the porter continued to flow regardless.
Danny, a regular customer, was contentedly playing cards by the glowing fire when dad asked: “Will you still follow the pint at the new price, Danny?”
“My dear man,” Danny replied, “I’ll follow it to Hell. Drinking the juice of the barley, in such congenial company, is priceless.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin should be congratulated for rowing in behind South Africa with regard to the genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is also to be congratulated in taking the courageous step of putting in progress, with other EU counties, the means by which Europe can recognise the state of Palestine.
Finally, I tip my hat to those righteous Jewish people in Israel, the US, and elsewhere who stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters.
