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A Massacre in Instalments
As I write this column the number of Palestinians
killed this year by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, East
Jerusalem and the Gaza strip is 207. By the time it is published in a few days
time that number will have increased. Last Friday I watched online video of the
last moments of Ammar Mufleh, aged 23, shot dead in Huwara, south of Nablus in
the occupied West Bank by an Israeli soldier. He was the tenth Palestinian
killed by Israeli forces in 10 days.
Shamefully the mainstream western based
international media and many governments chose not to report this or comment on
this and other recent events. They have chosen to ignore the daily brutality
and excesses of the Israeli apartheid state. Hanan Ashwari, the former
Palestinian peace negotiator described the Palestinian deaths this year and the
80,000 that have occurred since 1967 as “a massacre in instalments.”
Last week the United Nations International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People took place. It was
established in 1978 as an annual event to focus attention on the plight of the
five million Palestinian people living under constant fear and duress in the
occupied West Bank or under siege in Gaza, the largest open air prison in the world.
The refusal of the governments of the European
Union, including the Irish Government, the USA and others to directly challenge
the actions of Israel’s military and economic apartheid policies means that
that the Israeli government has free rein in imposing its violent regime on the
Palestinian people.
In the 45 years since the 1967 War and the illegal
occupation of the west Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip over 50,000
children have been detained by the Israeli state. Currently 160 children are still
being held along with thousands of adults, many interned without trial. Two
weeks ago the Save the Children organisation published a report which revealed
that 34 children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers this year. 2022
also witnessed the shocking murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
and the continued theft of Palestinian land for illegal settlements, summary
executions, and the demolition of Palestinian schools and homes.
Currently over 850 Palestinians are being held under
administrative detention orders – a more sanitised label for internment without
trial. One such internee is Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah
Hammouri. According to Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle
East and North Africa, Heba Morayef, the Israeli’s plan to deport Salah
Hammouri to France. Hammouri has been interned since last March. As an
advocate for Palestinian prisoners and rights he has spent nearly a decade in
Israeli prisons, often without charge or trial. The decision to revoke
Hammouri’s permanent residency status is based on the claim that he is guilty
of a “breach of allegiance” to the State of Israel. Hammouri is one
of almost 15,000 Palestinians whose residency rights have been stripped from
them. It is a form of ethnic cleansing. As Hammouri said himself; “How
can a brutally subjugated and colonized population be expected to pledge
loyalty to its occupier?”
In the same week the UN Middle East envoy Tor
Wennesland warned the UN Security Council, of which the Irish government is a
member, that; “After decades of persistent violence, illegal settlement
expansion, dormant negotiations and deepening occupation, the conflict is again
reaching a boiling point …”
Increasing violence against Palestinians has been
fuelled in recent weeks by the successful election results for former extreme
right wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who appears to be on course to
form the next government. Israel’s apartheid regime will only get worse.
Solidarity with the people of Palestine is hugely
important at any time however it is even more imperative that solidarity is
turned into action. The Irish government has refused to enact The Occupied
Territories Bill which makes it illegal to trade with and give economic support
to “illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under
international law” most notably Israeli settlements. The Irish
government has also decided to ignore Oireachtas motions supporting the right
of the Palestinian people to self-determination and for official recognition of
Palestine as a state.
I would urge everyone interested in justice for the
Palestinian people to support the establishment of a global anti-apartheid
campaign. Contact your elected representatives and demand that the Irish
government recognise the state of Palestine and use its place on the UN
Security Council to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies.
Making the Case for Irish Unity
In 2019 Professor Colin Harvey and Mr Mark Bassett
Barrister-at-Law co-authored an independent legal and academic report – The EU
and Irish Unity: Planning and Preparing for Constitutional Change in Ireland.”
It was part of a series of reports which examined the implications of Brexit.
Last month the two produced a second report. “Making
the Case for Irish Unity in the EU” was commissioned by The Left in the
European Parliament. It explores the legal mechanisms that are part of the Good
Friday Agreement for the island of Ireland to be reunited within the EU. The
report also sets out the steps the EU can take to provide for such an
eventuality.
A key element of the report is its focus on the
need for planning and preparation for Irish Unity which they believe would be “consistent
with the right to self-determination, potentially secure more effective
protection for human rights and equality, including rights attaching to EU
citizenship, guarantee the protection of the functioning of the internal market
and provide for a more coherent and democratic system of enforcement of EU
law.”
The authors believe that there are referendums on
constitutional change coming and that these are likely two choices for the
electorate; the North remaining within the British system, outside of the
European Union and within a protocol arrangement or a reunified Ireland as a
full EU member state.
Colin Harvey and Mark Bassett say it is time that
the European institutions looked seriously at this evolving situation. The
constitutional future of Ireland will be decided by the people of Ireland. But
clearly there is an important role for the European Union in preparing for
this. Colin Harvey and Mark Bassett’s report is an invaluable addition to
this conversation.
Last Words
There was a very good
response to my wee piece on local words which are not
heard so often nowadays. Here
are a few more to add to your vocabulary.
Sleekit = sly. Underhand.
Fly = see sleekit.
Gunk = shock. As in ‘That
scare gave me a quare gunk’
Scally= squinting.
Slegging = joking with. Slegger.
Coul Rife= a
person susceptible to coldness.
Gulder = shout. He
let a gulder out of him.
Guldering = shouting.
A mhic = son.
A bully = a form of
greeting as in ‘A bully Tom. How’s she cutting’. ‘Hullo Tom. How are things?’
Spondoolicks= money.
An oul doll = an old woman.
An oul lad = old man.
Lonan, loney =
small road or path.
Paver = paving stone.
Crib or crib stones= kerb.
Cribby = a ball game played against crib stones.
Dunt = a shoulder to shoulder challenge in football
or hurling. As in ‘a fair dunt’.
Coupted = fell.
Paralytic = drunk.
Blootered = see paralytic.
Stocious = see blootered.
Crabbid = cranky.
Chanter = singer.
Melarkey = nonsense.
Scoireacht = an evening of song and
storytelling….and a wee drink.
A wee dander = a short stroll.
A bottle and a half un = a Guinness and a whiskey.
Curate = a young barman.
Boke = vomit.
Mutt = dog
Muck = wet soil/clay. Dirt.
Mucky = as in ‘a mucky field’ - ‘mucky boots.’
Bogging = dirty.
Sallies = head lice.
Snatter Box = nose.
Thrawn = stubborn.
Thick = Stupid, ignorant,
also stubborn. E.G. He
is as thick as champ.
Bitter = unforgiving.
Intolerent. As in ‘He’s a bitter oul bastard’. Or ‘ He’s very bitter’.
Duncher = a clothcap.
Jalopy = a car.
Are you on you? Are you
dressed?
Happed up =
warmly clothed as in ‘He was well happed up against the cold.’ Or ‘ You
wud need to be well happed up on a coul day like that’.
Teeming = Heavy rain. Also teeming the potatoes. Draining water off
boiled potatoes.
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