‘We are all Paddystinians’

The closure by Israel of its embassy in Dublin has emboldened Irish support for the International Court of Justice in demanding the arrest and prosecution of Israeli political leaders for crimes against humanity.

The Irish public has been defying Israeli efforts to mock its support for Palestine by adopting their attempted slur term ‘Paddystinians’ as a badge of honour, and protests have continued across the country against the Israeli genocide.

In his final Christmas address, Irish President Michael D Higgins, who also became a target of Israeli slur and caricature, declared that apartheid Israel had “transcended all of the boundaries of humanitarian law” and accused it of “flagrantly inflicting collective punishment on civilians” in Gaza.

Among a daily tally of atrocities amid the ruins of Gaza, Israel has been carrying out the liquidations of the last remaining hospital buildings, detaining and, it is feared, executing the remaining medical staff and patients.

The Israeli army arrested Dr. Husam Abu Safyia, director of Kamal Edwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Footage showed the doctor walking unarmed facing the Israeli tanks before his arrest (pictured). It is feared he has been transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where Palestinians have been sodomised, tortured and killed.

At the weekend, a demonstration took place against the actions of the British government with a focus on the young children killed in Gaza. Protestors sang ‘not in our name’ outside the Erskine House headquarters of the British government in Belfast.

Marching from Writer’s Square, they carried pictures of children that have died in the conflict. This included Tamim (5), with a message that he was “scared to death by Israeli bombs” and one-year-old Joud who was “trapped to death under the rubble.”

It is estimated that at least 45,000 people have been killed by Israel in the last 14 months, one third of whom are children, according to UNICEF, with a similar number injured.

The protest followed a Christmas statement by British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, a key NATO supporter of the genocide, who claimed to be ready to support a new peace process for the region.

The RAF have been providing aerial support to the Israel war machine from its base in Cyprus.

But based on his past legal work in the North of Ireland, when he worked as a ‘human rights advisor’ to the North’s Policing Board, Starmer is reportedly set to hold an international summit in London early next year to kickstart an ‘International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace’.

Disturbingly, it is modelled on the ‘International Fund for Ireland’, which is still in use by the British government to channel cash to violent loyalist paramilitary gangs in Ireland.

More positively, the first group of Palestinian children to be medically evacuated to Ireland for healthcare treatment has arrived.

Eight children, accompanied by carers and siblings, have now travelled to Ireland in a plane provided by the Slovakian government for the medical evacuation.

Ireland, one of only ten states to respond to an international appeal by the World Health Organisation, will evacuate and treat up to 30 children in total.

The children have been assessed at a special clinic at Connolly Hospital by medical staff, many giving up their time voluntarily.

One nine year old girl had suffered a serious leg injury from an Israeli bombing. Unable to walk, the child was literally carried through the annihilation by her exhausted mother. The family spent the last few months as refugees in Egypt and the week before Christmas she was medically evacuated to Ireland.

“If you could see how happy she looked, it was such a big change for her and it was a difficult moment as well for the staff,” said Dr Ike Okafor, clinical director of Children’s Health Ireland, the paediatric hospitals group.

“There was no dry eye on that day. There was nobody that didn’t cry.”

Urgent Appeal