Sir, – As EU foreign affairs ministers meet this week to discuss whether Israel should finally face consequences for its actions, it is one of many complex and high-level issues that need to be discussed. The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues to descend into ever greater horror.
This week, Trócaire’s humanitarian response partner in Gaza reported that children are waking screaming in overcrowded tent camps as rats bite their fingers and toes while they sleep beside piles of garbage and sewage. Families who have already lost homes, loved ones and any sense of safety are now battling infestations and disease in conditions unfit for human survival.
Our medical experts warn that the collapse of waste management since October 2023 has created a public health disaster. Flies and rodents are spreading hepatitis A, severe diarrhoeal diseases and potentially deadly infections, including leptospirosis and rat-bite fever. Doctors on the ground say they are treating rodent-related incidents daily, even before the height of summer arrives.
The EU already concluded that Israel is in breach of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which requires respect for human rights. Yet, meaningful action has still not followed. Ireland has rightly spoken out again and again against the devastation inflicted on the Palestinian people, but words are no longer enough.
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The Government should, before the summer recess, urgently pass the Occupied Territories Bill, including both goods and services, and continue to work for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Ireland cannot continue waiting for a broader EU consensus while children in Gaza endure what can only be described as hell on earth. Stalling the passing of this Bill can no longer be justified. To do so risks undermining our moral and legal duty as a country to not legitimise Israel’s ongoing campaign of terror, systematic violence and oppression in the Middle East.
This Saturday, like many Saturdays since October 2023, thousands will, again, take to the streets in Dublin city centre to demand an end to the slaughter and starvation in Gaza. Our political leaders must now show the same moral courage being demonstrated by ordinary people. – Yours, etc,
SEAN FARRELL,
CEO of Trócaire
Kildare.
