5821e3aa-3103-4dc8-ba95-4eefdc23d9cb

The Irish Anti-War Movement

ISRAEL’S REIGN OF TERROR AGAINST PALESTINIANS – unpublished letter to the Irish Times on 07 January 2023

Sir,

it was disappointing that there was not one word in either of your end of year reviews (24th and 31st December) of the egregious situation endured by the Palestinian people in 2022 – the most violent year since 2005 as Michael Jansen’s report (World News, 04 January) at last reveals – not least because of the number and nature of the killings, many of them targeted assassinations which clearly amount to war crimes.

The killings include those of two brothers, Jawad and Thafer Rimani, aged 22 and 21 respectively, students at Beirzeit University gunned down near Ramallah in November; 16-year old Jana Majdi Zakarneh, shot while searching for her cat on the roof of her house in Jenin on 12 December; 23-year old Ahmed Daraghmeh, a keen footballer and top scorer for West Bank Premier League club Thaqafi Tulkarem killed in Nablus on 22 December; 15-year old Adam Issam Shaker Ayyad killed in al-Dheshe refugee camp in Bethlehem on Tuesday of this week and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh gunned down while reporting in Jenin on 11 May.

The 220 victims, including 48 children, of Israel’s violent, unjustified aggression in 2022 were all human beings, have names and deserve to be remembered.

Meanwhile, the most reactionary Government in Israel’s history is warmly welcomed by western leaders including Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen et al. With at least two overtly fascist Ministers who incite violence against Palestinians, and with one elected Israeli Parliamentarian chillingly calling on live TV for a final war against Palestinians, the Knesset cabal make strange bedfellows for western Governments that purport to defend human rights.

Palestinian men, women and children are regularly violently attacked by an occupying foreign military while going about their business on their own internationally recognised lands. Will the new Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, who in an unusual act of solidarity was the first EU foreign Minister to visit Gaza after Israel’s brutal Operation Cast Lead in 2009, now support the right of Palestinians to resist such violent attacks perpetrated against them by the military of an illegally occupying, openly racist, terror state?

Yours etc,

JIM ROCHE
PRO Steering Committee, Irish Anti-War Movement,
PO Box 9260,
Dublin 1

Recent Posts

Categories

Subscribe now and receive free updates for lifetime.

Follow Us

Join our Mailing list!

Get all latest news, and updates directly into your inbox.