This article by Eoin Ó Murchú first appeared in Unity, the weekly publication of the Irish Communist Party.
IT is too much!
Night after night, on our television screens, we see the heart-rending scenes from Gaza, of starving people fighting for food, of starving people being shot dead as they cry out for food, of the empty eyes of starving and traumatised children.
And night after night we hear the Israeli government deny the deliberate famine we can see with our own eyes.
And night after night we hear world ‘leaders’ utter empty words and do nothing.
Now, even the Western financed Independent Food Security Classification has confirmed that there is a famine in central Gaza and that this famine will spread further south unless immediate remedial action is taken.
The Irish President, Michael D. Higgins has added his voice of condemnation to what is happening.
“So many world leaders have issued statements over the last two years, always referencing a two-state solution”, he said. “But how can they now see the very concept destroyed before their eyes – in Gaza with the loss of life and in the West Bank with further illegal occupation. Without urgent change, it is difficult to see how the international community can emerge without a loss of credibility and moral authority”.
He added: “What is at stake now is the status of international law, the granting of impunity in conditions of indiscriminate destruction, and misrepresentation of the right to food itself by an occupying power.
None of this will wait until September. It is now the time for action on behalf of the international community, including all members of the European Union.”
Sadly, the European Union, along with Britain and the United States, are in the forefront of those defending the genocide that Israel is perpetrating.
They refuse to take action to stop it, and offer nothing but pious words. Others are not so reticent. There are demonstrations throughout Europe, and even in the United States, against these atrocities.
In Ireland the GAA, and even a group of Catholic priests in the South, have come out to demand that sporting and religious organisations sever any links with
Israel.
Trade unions are demanding that the Irish central bank stop acting as a selling agent for Israeli war bonds, thus financing the atrocities that Israel is perpetrating.
But still the governments procrastinate.
The Taoiseach warns us that we must abide by EU law, and that we are constrained in what we can do. Public opinion has made sure that the Occupied Territories Bill must be processed, but still the government wants to tone it down and exempt services from the illegally occupied West Bank.
In the North, to their great discredit, the DUP complains about children from Gaza being brought to the North for medical treatment. Have they no compassion for the suffering we see before us? Have they no humanity?
It is not enough for us, anymore than it is for the governments, to offer nothing but words. Palestinians need action to make Israel pay a price that will force it to stop. And we who watch all this on our television screens have a human duty to take action, each and every one of us.
Raise this question – in your trade union, in your community association, in your political party if you are a member of any such, no matter what.
The governments can shut their eyes to the horrors of Gaza and the West Bank, but they can’t ignore the people who will one day cast their votes if the people make it clear that we want action and not just words.
You are only helpless if you let the governments away with it.
Come out, speak up and take action.
Humanity demands it of you.