'Our prayers are with Gaza - It cannot become the graveyard of International Law'

Letterkenny came out in support of Palestine at an anti-genocide demonstration on Saturday.

A crowd in the region of 250 gathered at An Grianan Theatre to show their solidarity for the people of Palestine, who are currently under attack from Israel in Gaza.

Tensions exploded three weeks ago when fighters from Hamas - a Palestinian militant group - breached the border and killed Israeli civilians with soldiers taken off guard. Israel’s response since, though, has been dubbed as “genocidal.”

By Tuesday last, some 5,700 Palestinians had been murdered, 2,300 of these children and 1,200 being women. Ninety-six Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank. Some 1,500 Palestinians are missing, including 830 children.

Since then, Israel has been expanding its ground operation in Gaza, with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by strikes from the air and sea with the 2 million Palestine inhabitants effectively boxed in the enclave. Israel has been accused of showing no regard for international law, blocking off aid convoys, electricity, medical and water supplies.

Palestinians and their supporters, though, have made continual reference to their inhumane treatment since the state of Israel was founded in 1948. The Nakba, known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, was the displacement of a majority of the Palestinian Arabs since then.

Fadl Mustapha, who has lived in Letterkenny for 19 years, is a third-generation refugee of Palestine. He gave a heartfelt speech on the predicament of his compatriots.

“I condemn all acts of violence,” he said. “I am here to address you as a normal human being. I ask you to feel like a Palestinian, to sleep, eat and read like one. But I cannot ask you to live like one. I do not wish it on my worst enemy.

“It is very difficult to live the life of a Palestinian, not just for the last few weeks, but for the last 75 years, in all the occupied territories, and most importantly, in Gaza. We have been subjected to discrimination and racism, killed and murdered. We have tried to integrate into the community, we have carried our culture and also our suffering and misery. But we have carried our dreams and aspirations.

“We are not playing the victim. What we are demanding is our human rights and equality. We hear a lot about international human rights and we get lectured on it. It is a privilege to speak about human rights, like they do in the West, so-called democracies. They talk about democracy, equality and the value of human life, but they stop when it comes to the rights of the oppressed.

“I have been baffled and confused by the silence about us. Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor. As a Palestinian, it feels as though all channels of speaking up against injustice are being questioned. When we speak out we are labelled anti-Semite, when resist we are labelled terrorists, when our Jewish friends speak out, they are labelled self-hating Jews, with their Jewish identity questioned. We are also Semites, so murdering us is also anti-Semitic.

“We are demanding we stand up for your humanity, to recognise what is right. Over 7,000 lives have been lost, with over 2,000 of them children. How many are lying under the rubble now? How many are orphaned?

“We live in a world where genocide is now debatable, massacres are quantified, executing children is rationalised, collective punishment is shrugged off. Disinformation has never been louder, condemning baby-killing is one-sided. Six-thousand bombs in six days is justified. Our freedom is your freedom. Our justice is your justice. Our dignity is your dignity.”

Becca Bor, originally from Boston and now living in Derry and of the Jewish faith, represents 'Jews for Palestine Ireland'.

“The situation in Gaza is not our name,” she said. “The occupation of Palestine is not in our name. The expansion of settlements is not in our name. Apartheid Israel is not in our name.

“I feel a responsibility as a Jew to be speaking up right now. There are tens of thousands of others who are speaking the same. It is not anti-Semitic to speak up against what Israel is now doing. We look back at the Holocaust as a crime against humanity, but so too was the Nakba.

“It must come to an immediate ceasefire. We must say we have humanity. Boycott, divest and do it now. What’s the point in saying we’re against the slaughter if we’re not going to use the power of society?

“It is not normal to have a genocide as the world watches, as the US, the EU, the UK and Israel say ‘it’s not genocide.’ There is blood on these politicians’ hands and we need to make sure that they know that. Just yesterday, thousands of Jews in the United States, Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists, in the largest civil disobedience in Grand Central Station in New York, sat down. Hundreds were arrested and they held up a sign saying: ‘We mourn the dead and we fight like hell for the living.’”

Gerry McMonagle, Sinn Féin Councillor, condemned the actions of Hamas earlier this month, although reminded those in attendance that the Palestinian people have been suffering oppression for decades.

“Let us be very clear,” he said. “Hamas breached international law on October 7. It targeted innocent civilians in the most callous and inhumane manner and its actions have been rightly condemned by right-thinking people around the world.

“We should also be very clear, however, that Israel has breached international law, not just every day since October 7, but virtually every single day for decades. Israel occupies Palestinian land, blockades Palestinian territory, builds and expands illegal settlements, enforces an apartheid system that restricts the movements of Palestinians and denies them their fundamental rights, and regularly and systematically attacks and kills Palestinian civilians, all against international law.

“The question that must be answered by all of us is this. How does the world respond to flagrant abuses of international law? When it comes to the actions of Hamas, the response was very clear and consistent. World leaders queued up to say 'Israel has the right to defend itself.'

“One after another the great and the good, including our Government, repeated the words, ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’. This means in practice that Israel takes that right as a licence to bombard civilians and bomb schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.

“We need the international community to tell Israel to stop the blockade, the apartheid, the annexation and the genocide. The people of Gaza and indeed Palestine need the international community to lead the way. Ireland should be one of those countries that leads the way.

“We know colonialism, oppression and conflict but we also know conflict resolution, peacebuilding and nation-building. Due to what we know, and what our history has taught us, our call must be clear: immediate, full and unequivocal ceasefires and a decisive international intervention that leads to negotiations, a lasting and just peace settlement and, at long last, to a free, sovereign and independent Palestine. Today, our solidarity and prayers are with the people of Gaza. It cannot become the graveyard of International Law.”

Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, called on the diaspora and indeed those closer to home not to give up the fight and to let their voice be heard.

“Coming out on the street here makes the government act,” he said. “Come out to the local protests with the Palestinian flags. We can show we are true human beings and that humanity is the most important thing. We have to stop colonial politics.

“[US President] Joe Biden claims to be from Mayo. He claims to be from Dundalk. He claims to be from Ireland. He is the person who can change this. We need to put on the pressure to make sure that happens. Get onto your family and your friends in America to get behind the protests and we, here, can force our own leaders to be more supportive of the Palestine people by the power of ourselves.”