THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AND JUSTICE ENDURES

By the time Apartheid Israel began its genocidal assault on the people of Gaza on October 7, 2023, it had already been one of the most dangerous years on record for Palestinians. Since then, Palestinians have suffered a year of obscene, live-streamed, brutality; atrocity upon atrocity upon bloody atrocity, while Western powers steadfastly refuse to intervene.

At the time of writing, a very minimum of 42,000 Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza, including at least 17,000 children, with countless people buried under the rubble. 100,000 people have been injured, many thousands of them maimed for life. Almost the entire population has been displaced, most of them multiple times. Palestinians are subjected to enforced starvation, and deprived of the most basic necessities: shelter, medicine, water, even soap.

11,000 people have been incarcerated by Israel and are subjected to torture and abuse, among them the many medics and nurses kidnapped from Gaza’s hospitals.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinians are facing ethnic cleansing and relentless, often lethal, attacks by Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers. More than 700 people have been murdered there, including at least 140 children; one child’s life snuffed out every two days.

Israel has deliberately killed journalists, medics, students, academics and aid workers in record numbers. Gaza lies in ruins with the north now under renewed assault. With hospitals forced to evacuate at gunpoint and fleeing Palestinians being shot by Israeli occupation forces, the situation is as catastrophic as it has been at any time during this genocide.

This year of endless daily massacres, of hospitals turned into graveyards, of disease and famine, has also seen international law shredded and the disgusting criminal complicity of the US and the EU in the spotlight; they arm, fund and provide political cover for Israel no matter the depravity of its crimes against humanity. This genocide is a direct result of the decades of impunity Israel has been granted by the international community, including Ireland, for its crimes of occupation, ethnic cleansing, siege, mass incarceration and apartheid.

In the face of this horror, there has been immense solidarity with the Palestinian people, as the global movement demanding an end to the genocide and apartheid grows. In Ireland, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s national marches to protest what Israel is doing in Gaza, and now Lebanon. Every week, the length and breadth of the country, there are vigils, marches, meetings and actions for Palestine - the momentum has not dissipated as Israel and its backers had hoped it would.

There has been incredible organising at a community and sectoral level among teachers, healthcare workers, artists, sportspeople, and so many more. The Palestinianled Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement has grown worldwide with escalated organising and wins, such as insurance giant AXA being forced by a global campaign to divest from Israeli arms companies and banks, the campaign that compelled Intel to abandon plans for a new Israeli factory, and all the Irish artists pulling out of the SXSW Festival in Texas due to sponsorship by arms companies.

Cutting through Israel’s ‘pinkwashing’, in expressions of intersectional shared struggle, queer and trans activists, artists and groups have been to the fore in their solidarity with their Palestinian siblings. The Boycott Eurovision campaign gained huge momentum with many venues, including Pantibar, cancelling screenings and replacing Eurovision parties with genocide-free events. Dublin LGBTQ Pride ensured neither the Israel Ambassador nor any companies on the BDS Movement list took part, while IPSC branches across Ireland marched in local Pride parades. Solidarity is a verb.

In May, the International Court of Justice affirmed that Ireland, like all states, has a legal obligation to prevent genocide. Yet despite mass public support for Palestinians, aside from a few tokenistic gestures, our government has failed to take real, meaningful action to sanction Israel. Rather, it is blocking legislation like the Occupied Territories Bill, the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill, and the Arms Embargo Bill, that would provide some measure of accountability and protection for the Palestinian people.

Polls show the majority of people in Ireland support sanctions, and we will not be fobbed off with empty words. We demand an end to all trade - not least the arms trade - with Israel, we want Israeli weapons out of Irish airspace, and the US military out of Shannon.

Keep boycotting the genocidal apartheid state of Israel. This genocide must end, there must be justice for the Palestinian people, and we must do all we can to support their struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

We owe this to the Palestinian heroes who dig their loved ones out of the rubble, rebuild hospitals, teach art in tents, and care for each other in this onslaught; who teach us life with their courage and dignity.

Free Palestine.