Sir, – For healthcare professionals, it remains a professional duty to tend to wounded and sick from all parties to a conflict. This is not impossible when international humanitarian law is respected.
The taking of hostages is illegal.
Disproportionate collateral damage is also illegal.
How often and how loudly must this be said in solidarity with our professional healthcare colleagues?
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Healthcare workers are not a target. Children are not a target. Wounded are not a target. Civilians are not a target. Ambulances are not a target. Journalists are not a target.
What is unclear here?
We need an immediate, unconditional and sustainable ceasefire for healthcare and humanitarian professionals to function in Gaza. – Yours, etc,
MACA HOURIHANE,
Salmon Weir,
Galway.
Sir, – On January 26th, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to comply with a series of measures as the court believed there is a serious risk Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza. Instead of complying with these orders, Israel has doubled down on its actions and has continued to kill Palestinians (more than 4,000 since January 26th), created a situation of mass starvation, reduced the amount of aid reaching those who most need it, made life intolerable for expectant mothers and new-born babies, and Israel’s national security minister has called for the ending of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. South Africa has now returned to the ICJ seeking additional measures against Israel.
In this context, Ireland’s response must urgently go far beyond anything done to date. In a previous ruling (the 2007 Bosnian genocide case), the ICJ said that states parties to the genocide convention must “employ all means reasonably available to them” to prevent genocide when they become aware of the possibility a genocide is being committed.
Customary international law (which includes the Genocide Convention) is part of the EU legal order and takes precedence over it. Ireland is now, therefore, free to pass into law the Occupied Territories Bill to ban trade with illegal settlements without fear of legal action from the EU.
Ireland should also immediately recognise the State of Palestine and the Taoiseach, during his St Patrick’s Day visit to President Biden, should demand that the US support Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations.
This is an essential first element in a legitimate peace process rather than the final element. UN recognition of the State of Palestine will make it clear to Israel that refusing Palestinians’ right to self-determination is no longer acceptable.
The Government should also immediately divest Irish taxpayers’ money from Israeli banks and other enterprises benefitting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and cease all trade in arms with Israel.
In a situation of genocide these actions are not only legal and moral obligations, they are now also urgent. – Yours, etc,
ÉAMONN MEEHAN,
Chair,
Sadaka – the Ireland Palestine Alliance,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Hamas is a terrorist organisation which does not have a moral code. Israel is a state with a defence force which labels itself as the most moral army in the world. The facts on the ground in Gaza and the hate-filled rhetoric of Israeli minister of national security Ben Gvir and his ilk have ensured that the civilised world will continue to hold Israel to account. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK SMYTH,
Mulranny,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – I wish to thank Michael Cullen (Letters, February 24th) for confirming that indeed the people of Gaza could go to Egypt. And also for confirming that the Egyptian government is refusing to offer safe refuge to the people of Gaza, who are fellow Arabs and Muslims, which is in violation of international humanitarian law which requires governments to provide international protection to those seeking refuge from war.
It is a warped logic that concludes that offering sanctuary to those fleeing war aids ethnic cleansing and therefore Egypt is right to refuse safe refuge. It is a sad state of affairs that it is better to watch your neighbours being blown to bits rather than offer them refuge from war.
Under this logic it was wrong of European countries, like Ireland, to have provided sanctuary to over six million Ukrainians refugees. – Yours, etc,
JASON FITZHARRIS,
Swords,
Co’ Dublin.
Sir, – Tom Fuller (Letters, March 1st) is in error when he says that it is a mistake to refer to Palestinians in Gaza as “refugees” and that they would only become so if they cross an international border into Egypt.
A significant part of Gaza’s tragedy is that its population is largely made up of Palestinian refugees, and descendants of refugees (also eligible for registration as refugees), who fled there in 1948 and later. Moreover, there are eight officially recognised UN refugee camps in Gaza, with services provided by Unrwa.
The latest Israeli war on Gaza has seen up to 85 per cent of the civilian population displaced. Refugees are now fleeing refugee camps, many of which lie in ruins. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.