Limerick Vigil for Gaza

limerick | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Sunday January 11, 2009 00:30

by Zoe Lawlor - Limerick branch Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Vigil in Solidarity with the People of Gaza

As the slaughter in Gaza continues, as Gaza burns and Israel continues to murder with impunity, there was a vigil in Limerick today to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The Mayor of Limerick, John Gilligan lit a peace lantern from Palestine and made a speech condemning the massacres carried out in Gaza by Israel as well as the occupation of Palestine. IPSC speakers called for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador, the recall of the Irish Ambassador in Tel Aviv and for Minister Micheal Martin to suspend diplomatic relations with the rogue Israeli state until Israel ceases its criminal and murderous campaign in Gaza. They also called for the Minister for Foreign Affairs to insist in the EU Council of Ministers on the suspension of the EU trade agreement with Israel under Clause 2 of that Agreement and for a full boycott of Israeli products in Ireland.
About 150 people came along to express their solidarity with the people of Gaza. Also in attendance were Jan O'Sullivan Labour TD and Minister of Defence Willie O'Dea.
A poem by Mahmoud Darwish was read at the vigil.

I Come From There
by Mahmoud Darwish

I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.

I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word: Homeland.....

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Comments (2 of 2)

Refuelling and resupplying genocide with Bombs?

by Shannonwatch

Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:52

At least three, and possibly four, US airforce hercules C130 have passed through Shannon over the past few days. We dont know yet whether their missions were to resupply munitions and war materials to the killing fields of Gaza, or to the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Gaza are we seeing an ongoing phase in a final solution to the Palestinian people living in Gaza? By making living conditions in Gaza as difficult as possible, Israel has forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee from Gaza, with Israel hoping they will never return. Now we are seeing state terror being used to kill, maim and psychologically damage as many people as possible, thereby encouraging many more people to leave Gaza. Israel wants its Arab neighbouring countries to be forced to take in the Palestinian people, therby making them someone else's problem, and leaving as much of the Palestinian lands as possible in Israeli Jewish possession. The casualty rate in most of the recent conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian people has been almost 100:1 which amounts to a massacre by any standards.

Given that almost six millions Jewish people were killed in the genocide committed in German death camps, known as the Holocaust.
I might seem outrageous to now accuse the Jewish Israeli Government of genocide against the Palestinian people. However, an examination of the Genocide Convention 1948 reveals that Israel may well be in serious breach of several aspects of the Genocide Convention in its treatment of and attacks on the Palestinian people since 1948, and in particular in its most recent attacks on Gaza.

Israel is one of the 142 countries that have ratified the Genocide Convention 1948. Given the horrific Jewish experiences of the Holocaust Israel should be one of the strongest supporters of the Genocide Convention, and should be exemplary in its compliance and enforcement of this convention. Yet a study of the behaviour of the state of Israel since its foundation in 1948 shows that the treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state has been in breach of the spirit and in some cases the letter of international laws on genocide. The full title of the convention is: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Its first two articles are:
Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such:
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Israel has been in very serious breach of Article II especially, including in the following respects:
1. The virtual ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their lands and homes in 1948, and is subsequent conflicts, and by other means including restrictive planning, purchase, and destruction of property including farm land and crops.
2. The deliberate targeting of religious buildings particularly Mosques.
3. The killing of large numbers of the Palestinian group in a very disproportionate manner (approximately 100:1) contrary to Article II a.
4. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, contrary to Article II b.
5. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, contrary to Article II c.
In recent years prominent national leaders and others from several countries, including, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda and Liberia, have been brought before international courts for crimes against humanity. The leaders of Israel should be no exception, and if any Palestinian leaders have been involved in crimes against humanity, they should also face trial before international courts.

Given the above legal situation, it behoves the Irish Government and the Irish people to ensure that Ireland and its territory and airspace are in no way being used to facilitate or be complicit in war crimes that may amout to acts of genocide.