The following article by Dianne Kirby was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
A THOUSAND days of genocide has intensified Israel's blood lust, contempt for world opinion and open opposition to the two-state solution. The final walk of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, following Israel's destruction of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital where he was paediatrician director, remains a haunting image. A symbol of Israel's mass slaughter of healthcare professionals, his abduction ignited international campaigns. Lyon granted him honorary citizenship. To no avail. Daily tortured, denied medical care, he believes death is imminent.
Fellow high-profile abductee accorded global support and considered at risk of death by Israeli hands is Marwan Barghouti, Palestine's Mandela. TV broadcast Ben-Gvir's taunt: 'you won't win.' Barghouti is a declared candidate for the Palestinian presidency. He commands widespread support as a unifying figure, anathema to Israel's divide-and-rule strategy aimed at preventing a Palestinian state. Deployed to weaken the Palestinian Authority, the policy inadvertently strengthened Hamas, consolidating its control in Gaza where it was able to secure work permits, up to 20,000, for Gazan labourers. Viewed as an asset, Hamas received millions in Qatari cash infusions and indirectly negotiated with Israel via Egypt.
Following 7 October, Israel turned again to divide-and-rule to challenge and replace Hamas by creating opposition militias in Gaza. Recruits, from the lowest rungs and with no standing in Palestinian society, were lured with work, food, medicine, retained via threats, intimidation, violence. Fragmented, geographically isolated, reliant on Israeli protection, and lacking any public legitimacy, the militias proved abject failures. Project critic Michael Milshtein, a high-ranking intelligence analyst, warned that possessed with weapons, intelligence and training, the militias could turn against Israel, lamenting, 'Gaza has become the capital of Israeli fantasies.
'Jericho Wall', an Israeli military investigation, recently revealed that 7 October was not an intelligence failure. Intelligence was in abundance, as were years of accumulated warnings. The problem was misinterpretation, an inability to understand Palestinians. Entrenched convictions that Hamas lacked the capacity or intention to launch a large-scale attack and over-reliance on technology rather than human linguistic and cultural expertise, were contributing factors. As Major General Roni Numa remarked: 'We failed to realize that we did not understand Hamas'. Israel dehumanizes Palestinians and believes the lies it tells about them. Israel also believes the lies it tells about itself. It was unprepared for how its unprecedented bombardment of a defenceless population showcased its barbarism and inhumanity. In contrast, Palestinian courage, compassion and 'sumud' inspired peoples the world over to stand with Palestine. When global elites, corporations, media, culture and sporting organisations stood with Israel and supported genocide, they exposed the rot at the core of the western dominated world order, currently laid bare by football's 2026 World Cup antics.
Newly married Palestinian goalkeeper Saleem Al-Ashqar, looking forward to fatherhood, was killed last week in Gaza by the IDF. FIFA remained silent as have so many sporting associations as Israel devastated every layer of Palestinian sport: players, coaches, referees, administrators, youth athletes and entire clubs. Not so football fans who have used the tournament to express solidarity with Palestine. The Palestinian team is not at the world cup, but its flag is everywhere across matches in the US, Canada and Mexico. The Israeli flag is nowhere to be seen albeit the BBC tried to compensate by interviewing a kippah wearing English supporter prior to the England-Mexico match.
In a tournament built around national pride, Palestine has emerged as a moral symbol, emphasised when Egypt's head coach, Hossam Hassan, dedicated his team's historic victory, reaching World Cup Round 16 for the first time, to the Palestinian people. The solidarity has renewed demands for FIFA to suspend Israel from international football, giving additional momentum to the 'Show Israel the Red Card' campaign. It has again brought to the fore the double standard whereby Russia was swiftly suspended from international sport following its military operation in Ukraine, yet Israel and America's illegal war of aggression against Iran entailed no consequences, never mind Israel's genocidal conduct in Palestine and Lebanon and the menace it represents to the wider region.
The silence at the top speaks volumes to those at the bottom.