Minister O'Dea shown map of Gaza v Munster
limerick |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Saturday January 26, 2008 20:02
by Limerick IPSC - Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Minister O'Dea receives over 100 letters
In just one hour on Saturday more than 100 people on Limerick’s O’Connell Street signed letters addressed to the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea T.D. demanding government action to defend the rights of 1.5 million people besieged and under attack by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip.
IPSC Stall showing map of Gaza V Munster and the number of palestinians murdered, wounded and arrested in the last three weeks.
Members of the Limerick branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) presented the letters to Minister O’Dea at his constituency office in Limerick on Saturday afternoon. When shown a map of Gaza superimposed on a map of Munster Minister O’Dea expressed his amazement and said that he didn’t realise that it was so small.
The Minister told the delegation from the IPSC that he would discuss the situation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern T.D. during the coming week and would relay our concerns to him about the plight of the people of Gaza. The IPSC delegation also expressed concern about the failure of the EU to hold Israel to account for its crimes and the impact which the proposed new EU Treaty might have on both the EU and Ireland’s ability to bring any meaningful pressure to bear on Israel in the future.
A spokesperson for the Limerick branch of the IPSC, Mr. Sean Clinton said that the high level of public concern and support for the people in Gaza was clearly evident on the street in Limerick. People queued to sign letters urging the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea T.D. to insist that Israel abides by international law and the 4th Geneva Convention and calling for a suspension of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement pertaining to Israel. He said that most people have very little idea of the size of Gaza and like Minister O’Dea they are shocked when shown it superimposed on a map of Munster. The fact that 1.5 million people are trapped in such a small area without access to the outside world, under siege and assault by Israeli occupation forces makes it all the more urgent for our Government to use its influence in the EU and the UN to hold Israel to account.
Minister O’ Dea undertook to relay the outcome of his discussions with the Minister for Foreign Affairs to Mr. Clinton later in the week.
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 826th January 2008
Re; Irish Government’s complicity in crimes against Palestinians
Dear Minister O’Dea,
I’m writing to you to express my deep concern about the current crisis in Gaza and our Government’s failure to hold Israel to account for its actions. Freezing the fuel, power and other essential supplies to the 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza is ensuring that Palestinians there, already living in dire circumstances, are placed in even greater jeopardy. Many have already died as a result of being denied access to medical treatment. Israel’s actions are in contravention of international law which protects civilian populations and explicitly prohibits collective punishment. It beggars belief that an occupying power can impose such draconian sanctions on a defenceless, captive population while the EU, its largest trading partner, stands idly by and watches.
I am asking you, as a Minister in a sovereign government, a member state of the EU, to insist that Israel abides by international law and the 4th Geneva Convention and immediately ends its slow genocide of the people of Gaza. Furthermore, I call on you to act to bring about a suspension of the Euro-Med Agreement pertaining to Israel, Article 2 of which binds Israel to respect human rights in return for privileged trading terms, which EU taxpayers must fund.
Are the people of Palestine to be starved, shot and shelled into submission with the help and approval of the Irish government and the EU? I’m asking you to act on your conscience and also to uphold the values of the state you represent by putting pressure on Israel to end its barbaric siege of Gaza.
Thank-you for your time in reading this letter.
Yours sincerely,
_______________________
Minister of Defence Willie O’Dea T.D. was presented with over 100 letters urging government action to hold Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people. Left to right: Sean Clinton, Michael Geraghty, Minister Willie O’Dea T.D. and Bri
People queue up to sign letters to Minister O'Dea
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People queue to sign letters to Minister O'Dea
the map is excellent.
Palestinians will look at that map and think "well, at least we don't live in Limerick".
Digger, In three weeks 79 Palestinians murdered including 4 children, 239 wounded, 233 arrested, including 27 children, 6 homes demolished, the siege of Gaza tightened by the Israeli government to prevent the inhabitants getting food and health essentials - these are the accusations and all you can offer is a cheap gibe.
What has Israel actually done?
First, it has built a barrier around Gaza to limit the ability of suicide bombers to kill civilians.
Secondly, it makes incursions to target the terrorist infrastructure.
Thirdly, it has restricted imports into Gaza to stop bomb-making equipment from getting to the terrorists in aid and food packages.
Fourthly, it has applied economic sanctions against the Hamas regime. Israel, in other words, has chosen the strategy least likely to cause heavy loss of life while still exercising its right to self-defence.
Fifthly it eveicted all its citizens living in the Gaza area in order [it was thought] to reduce friction .
The condition of the residents of Gaza maybe dire .
The ultimate blame for this surely rests with Hamas, other militants and the culture of violence in Palestinian society that sustains them.
In the absence of all this there would, of course, be no security barrier, no military incursions, no trade restrictions and no sanctions.
In the topsy-turvy world of European commentary, however, reasoned argument is cast aside.
The frenzied, rhetorical onslaught against the Jewish state is at best intellectually lazy.
At worst it forms part of a hateful agenda that shames those who indulge in it.
Babs, it never ceases to amazes me that you and fellow Zionist sympathizers expect those incarcerated in the Gaza strip (and elsewhere) to sit passively in refugee camps while Zionists from Europe, Russia and America occupy their homes and farms.
In 1948 Jewish militia executed the brutal, pre-planned, ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs from their homes, farms and homeland, confiscated their property and planted Jewish emigrants in their place. If that happened to me or my family I wouldn’t accept it, no one with any dignity would accept such injustice and would rebel against it. Palestinians have not accepted this and will never accept it. According to international law and the UN Israel’s actions are illegal.
Israel has murdered, tortured, terrorized, occupied and subjugated a passive and pastoral population of innocent people who lived in peace and harmony with their Jewish neighbours for centauries.
Israel has demolished thousands of Palestinain homes, uprooted ancient fruit and olive groves, destroyed agricultural land, bombed essential services such as power stations, water plants, sewerage systems, and telecommunication infrastructure, airports and roads all in an effort to make life as miserable as possible for Palestinians and force them from even more of their land. Zionists believe they alone have a God given right to all the land of Palestine, something which I’m sure you will agree is not a sound basis for the administration of title and property deeds in any modern, sane and civilised society.
Israel’s siege of Gaza has nothing to do with preventing the import of bomb making equipment and everything to do with making life a misery for Palestinians who in 2006 had the temerity to democratically elect Hamas in free and fair elections.
A logical person would not conclude that firing tank shells, missiles and high calibre munitions in to homes and vehicles and bombing children from 30,000 feet as they sleep in their beds or play on the beach is a strategy “least likely to cause heavy loss of life” ...unless your thinking Israel deserves credit for not using their nuclear option.
Now I’m sure that even you don’t believe the line that Israel evicted the illegal colonies in Gaza “to reduce friction”. The expense of needing three battalions to protect them, the burden of responsibility for 1.5 million Palestinians and associated bad publicity for Israel were the real reasons they were removed to other illegal colonies on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The condition for the residents of Gaza is dire but the blame for this rests solely and squarely with Israel which imprisons them and continues to refuse then the right to return to live in peace in their homes inside the Israeli state from where they were illegally evicted.
The lazy arguments are surely from those who wish the clock began ticking after May 1948. You seem to think that everyone should accept that Zionists have a right ethnically cleanse Palestine in order to artificially create a Jewish state.
Go tell the families of the 71 people killed by Israeli occupation forces in the first three weeks of 2008 that their struggle for justice and freedom is part of a shameful agenda.
The founding fathers were honest and so were the leaders for the first 40 years
Now they have become " levantine " like Arafart
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