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Gaza – Unequal in life and in death

07/01/09

Eleven days into Israel’s attack on Gaza and almost 700 Palestinians are already dead. While the deaths of so many human beings is in itself a shocking event the statistic becomes all the more horrific when one realises that the total population of the Gaza Strip stands at only 1.4 million.

In less then a fortnight roughly 1 in every 2,000 people living in the Gaza strip have been murdered by the Israeli Defence Forces.

In proportionate terms an attack on the United States would already have killed 150,000 people.

The comparison is fitting given that it is the United States that supplies Israel, directly and indirectly, with the vast bulk of the military hardware that is currently being used with such devastating effect.

If it were tens of thousands of British, French or Spanish men, women and children that had been exterminated in recent days would the worlds leaders have politely asked for ‘restraint’ or patiently pleaded for ‘proportionate’ violence?

How did the great and the good respond when less than 3,000 people were killed in the United States in September 2001?

Rarely has the hypocrisy of the world’s major powers been more pronounced. Rarely have their double standards been more exposed.

2008 marked the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The first article of that document declares that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. And yet before that anniversary year had even ended Israel demonstrated that in this capitalist world there is as little equality in death as there is in life.

Among all of this death, despair and double standards there is hope. All across the globe ordinary people have shown the courage and integrity that their political leaders are so sadly lacking. Millions have already taken to the streets in protest against Israel’s offensive and millions more must do so.

Ultimately the Israeli government, like the South African apartheid regime before it, will have to respond to international pressure. And as with the campaign for a Free South Africa it has fallen to the people of each country to ensure that their respective governments hold Israel to account for its actions.

In Ireland there have already been protests in Belfast, Limerick, Derry, Cork, Dublin and elsewhere. The largest of these took place on Saturday past, January 3, when in excess of 2,000 people marched through Dublin city centre. On that occasion, more then sixty éirígí activists joined the protest. éirígí has also been engaged in solidarity work in other parts of Ireland, including in Belfast and Sligo.

Over the coming days many more protests are planned by various groups. éirígí is asking republicans, socialists and democrats to join these protests or to organise their own.

Demonstration Details:
Belfast: Friday, January 9 @ 4pm, City Hall.
Belfast: Saturday, January 10 @ 12.30pm, Arts College Square.
Cork City: Saturday, January 10 @ 1pm, Daunt’s Square.
Derry City: Friday, January 9 @ 7am, mass blockade of Raytheon.
Dublin: Saturday, January 10 @ 1pm, Central Bank, Dame Street.
Newcastle, County Down: Friday, January 9 @ 8.30pm, torchlight vigil on Main Street.

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