The massacre of unarmed protestors by Israeli military forces in Gaza on the day (Monday, 14th May) that the opening of the US embassy was celebrated in Jerusalem only serves to demonstrate once again how the international community has failed the people of Palestine. So far, 58 people including children have died and over 2000 were injured on one day after they were fired on by Israeli army snipers using high velocity weapons from behind a security fence illegally constructed on Palestinian land in Gaza.As the world media watched and the US gave its political and moral support to the Israeli government in its barbaric treatment of the besieged people of Gaza, the EU and other international powers largely ignored the atrocity. SIPTU Global Solidarity Campaign Secretary, Yvonne O’Callaghan, said: “The latest massacre following weeks of deaths of ‘Right to Return’ protestors in Gaza demonstrates again how the Israeli government is immune to any international criticism of its actions, as long as it has the support of the US government. It was inevitable that Palestinians would mark the anniversary of the Nakba seventy years ago when hundreds of thousands of their people were illegally forced from their lands as the Israeli state was established.“There is no justification for the shooting dead of over 100 unarmed people over recent weeks. The Irish government should do more than express its disapproval to the Israel authorities and instead support moves to put pressure on Israeli to enter real negotiations that embrace the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to its own sovereign state along the pre-1967 borders.”She added: “In the meantime, it should support initiatives that ban products made in the illegal settlements which Israel has encouraged across Palestinian lands and to end the inhumane blockade of Gaza where there is an acute shortage of clean water, electricity, medical and food supplies.”
Irish government should take real action against Israel over Gaza atrocities
