Letters to the Editor: Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza need a change in US policy
Mourners carry the body of 50-year-old paramedic Iman Juma'a, her body covered with her high-vis jacket, during her funeral in the occupied West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem on Wednesday. Picture: Nasser Nasser/AP
Under US president Joe Biden, the US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its support for Israel’s devastating war on a besieged Gaza has been a moral failure, and a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
The US is the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, providing an estimated 68% of the country’s foreign-sourced weapons. Without these weapons Israel would not be able to sustain the brutal daily bombardments which have made the lives of over two million people a living hell over the last ten months. Bombardments which have seen almost 40,000 massacred — 72% women and children — through daily indiscriminate attacks on hospitals, schools and areas that are supposed to be safe zones.
The horror is unrelenting. On July 22, 400,000 Palestinians were ordered by Israel to flee Khan Younis. But the bombs rained down before the evacuation orders landed and people had a chance to leave, killing more innocent civilians.
Mr Biden has desperately failed Palestinians. While the world shared the horror at the horrendous attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7, there is no justification for Israel’s response, aided and abetted by the US, which has seen nearly 10 months of killings, the starvation of an entire people, the destruction of the territory of Gaza, and the violence imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Attention is beginning to focus on whether Kamala Harris will be slightly harder in tone with Israel. The reality is this will not translate into real and meaningful action against Israel. It is almost certain that a second term of Donald Trump would also be terrible for Palestinians.
The people of Palestine have suffered enough. What they need is a US president that will halt arms supply to Israel, push for a permanent ceasefire, and apply increased pressure on Israel regarding illegal settlements and ending a violent and illegal occupation that has lasted over 56 years.
With all the lionising of Joe Biden following his decision to withdraw from the US presidential race, we think only of the tens of thousands of murdered and maimed men, women, and children in Gaza as his primary legacy. He was the one political leader in the world who could have halted Israel’s brutal revenge onslaught against a defenceless civilian population yet he chose not just to do nothing but to actually facilitate this barbarism. We say good riddance.
The Olympic Games officially open tomorrow, with 10,714 athletes from 206 nations to participate in 329 events in 32 sports.
The rebirth of the Olympics in 1896 is due to Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, centred on the Latin motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” changed in 2021 to “Citius, Altius, Fortius — Communiter” (Faster, Higher, Stronger — Together).
Baron de Coubertin’s vision for the modern Olympics was as a festival of sport where the world’s best amateur sportsmen could compete for the glory of their respective nations, for their personal glory, and to display sportsmanship at the highest level.
Even though the Olympics have moved from pure amateurism and have been beleaguered by political, commercial, and doping controversies, they still affirm the unifying power of sport and the importance of solidarity.
To be an Olympian is a distinct honour. To win an Olympic medal is a lifetime achievement. As a keen sports fan, I’m eagerly looking forward to Paris 2024 in the realistic expectation of our brilliant Team Ireland winning medals.
Teresa Trainor (Letters, July 15) and Dermot Meleady (July 19) unsurprisingly take issue with my suggestion that purposeful sanctions must be imposed by Ireland on the rogue state of Israel, particularly through the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill.
The repeatedly expressed claim by such supporters of Israel that the Occupied Territories Bill would contravene EU law is a weak attempt to obstruct its progress and certainly not a fact.
Indeed, senior legal experts have argued that it will comfortably withstand scrutiny, partly because exceptions to EU trade rules are allowed “on grounds of public morality, public policy, or public security, and the protection of health and life of humans”. Let us enact the bill and see how it fares.
It is worth remembering that the Occupied Territories Bill is aimed at banning trade between Ireland and Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. Its implementation now would be timely.
First, with more than 38,000 men, women, and children massacred by Israeli forces in Gaza, the moral rationale for such a sanction is clear. Something must be done to help end this horror.
Second, the political imperative was powerfully underlined last Friday by the landmark ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) confirming the absolute illegality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and of the occupation itself. In this context, it is immensely frustrating that the Government here continues to drag its feet regarding meaningful sanctions. This ruling by the ICJ, of course, also completely negates Mr Meleady’s misleading comments on the status of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Prior to retirement, Dermot Meleady was an employee of the Israeli embassy in Dublin — as its information officer — and, unremarkably, he strongly reflects the tone of official Israeli state propaganda in his letter. This is most noticeable when he suggests that those calling for the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill ignore other military occupations, supposedly causing him “to wonder if it is the non-involvement of Jews that makes the difference”.
This disgraceful remark contains a barely cloaked accusation of antisemitism and, as the only person named in his letter, one I feel obliged to reject as contemptible.
Mr Meleady also lobs a diversionary hare on to the pitch — which I have no intention of chasing — when he refers to the Turkish military presence in northern Cyprus. Nonetheless, it is a peculiar tangent because I don’t actually disagree with his condemnation of the Turkish occupation. Indeed, I have crossed the militarised border by foot between the Republic of Cyprus and Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus — a surreal experience — and will readily agree that it is an ignominy and should not exist.
But Mr Meleady will be pleased to learn that the Occupied Territories Bill is not territory-specific and can be equally applied to northern Cyprus. If only for this reason, perhaps he might consider supporting its enactment.
The article by Mick Clifford’s mother (Irish Examiner, Saturday, July 20) was beautiful. I felt like I was there with her at the matches.
Someone once told me that you have to have a certain amount of cockiness to be great at something. But I love, as a Cork native, to rise people about Cork. It’s only a bit of fun , but people think we are serious and that’s what makes it great craic.
She should write more often. She writes from the heart. Beautiful.
Reading Aideen Clifford’s article was a tonic.
Recalling her youthful days and reliving those great hurling matches. The rivalry, the passion for the wonderful game and the love of one’s home county — hers Galway. Last weekend was no different, the search for tickets, the passion, and the modern-day heroes just the same.
I was back in my head a lifetime ago leaving Semple Stadium heading towards Slievenamon on my bicycle to avoid the Cork supporters in full voice singing ‘The Banks’ — that of course if they beat Tipp — and now I found myself even hoping that Pat Horgan would get an All-Ireland medal!
Hurling brings great joy to people of all ages — the young able to play the game and attend the big matches, and that the people of older years who can reassure them that it was ever thus. Sharing their stories, their rekindled memories, and renewed energy, that enthusiasm and passion that should of course come with a health warning!
You deserve credit for ensuring that older people have a huge and important role to play in society, not least in the media. We all now know where your award-winning journalist Mick Clifford, Aideen’s son, gets his talent from.
Revoiced
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