Kairos Ireland – May update

Nakba Day – 15th May 2022

Palestinians mark the 15th May as Nakba Day, when they remember the catastrophe of 1948. Then, around three quarters of a million Palestinian where driven from their homes by the Zionist militias and over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed. This was not an accident of war. It was a deliberate plan (Plan D) enacted under the direction of a committee chaired by David Ben Gurion to cleanse Palestine of its Palestinian inhabitants. Professor Haim Bresheeth of the London school of Oriental and African studies (SOAS), who is the son of a holocaust survivor, describes the process in a recent interview on Palestine International TV.

World attention is currently focussed on the appalling events in Ukraine where the invasion and attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia are causing immense suffering, death, and human rights abuses. The invasion is in violation of international law. Many Palestinians say, but this has been happening to us at the hand of Israel for decades. When will the world wake up and support international law in Palestine as it is currently doing in Ukraine? This viewpoint is expressed in a blog by the Palestinian academic Samia Nasir-Khoury in a piece entitled, ‘Blatant Display of Hypocrisy’.

Passover – Ramadan – Easter

This year the major festivals of all three faiths that regard Al Quds/Jerusalem as a sacred city occurred at the same time. Sadly, once again there was tension and violence. People were killed in Palestine and Israel. Israeli police made incursions into the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The Israeli authorities also limited access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Palestinian Christians for the Easter rituals. The Executive Director of FOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America), Jonathan Kuttab, writes about ‘Freedom to Worship’ in a recent mailing by FOSNA. Kuttab is an international human rights lawyer and is a co-founder of the Palestinian Human Rights agency Al Haq. 

Sabeel-Kairos UK Theology Group

This March I attended a conference of the Sabeel-Kairos UK Theology Group, which was held in the Gladstone Library, North Wales. There were a variety of contributions by activists in Palestine, the USA, South Africa, and the UK. One of the contributors was Dr Susan Power from Cork who works as a human rights advocate with Al Haq. Al Haq is one of the six Palestinian Human Rights organisations that was falsely accused by Israel in 2021 of promoting terrorism. These allegations have proved to be entirely groundless but have made the work they do more complicated. The United Nations have now stated that Israel has failed to provide any evidence to substantiate its allegation and that funding agencies should continue to support the work of the six agencies.

A statement was issued by the Sabeel-Kairos UK Theology Group, written against the backdrop of the Russian assault on Ukraine. The statement draws attention to the fact that another aggressive assault (on Palestine) has not received the same international attention that the Russian war of aggression has received. The statement points to the call for decisive action to end the oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel made in the Kairos Palestine Cry for Hope. The statement points out that the continuing apartheid practiced by Israel is not just a crisis for Israel but is also a crisis of faith for Christian people. Just as the apartheid practised by South Africa was incompatible with the principles of the gospel, so is the apartheid practiced by modern-day Israel.

Visit to Ireland by UN Special Rapporteur, Michael Lynk

Michael Lynk is a Canadian law professor, who completed his seven-year term as the UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories on April 1 st 2022. Just before he stepped down, he issued his final report in which he endorses the designation of Israel as an apartheid regime.  Professor Lynk spoke in Dublin on March 29th, 2022 at a conference organised by SADAKA. He met with the Irish President, Michael D Higgins, spoke to NGOs, and engaged in conversation with TDs and Senators in the Oireachtas. Professor Lynk commended Ireland for the Dáil statement of the May 26 th , 2021, stating that Israeli settlement activity amounts to de facto annexation. He commended Ireland for the international lead that it has given for the cause of justice for Palestinians. He expressed the hope that Ireland will continue to play a positive role in support of human rights and that it will shortly enact the ‘Occupied Territories Bill’ to ban trade with illegally occupied territories.

Resumption of EAPPI teams in the West Bank

After a two-year suspension caused by Covid restrictions, field work by the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in

Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has resumed. During the absence of an international presence in the occupied West Bank there has been an increase in settler violence directed against pastoralist communities in the South Hebron Hills area near the city of Yatta. Some the Ecumenical Accompaniers who were sent to re-establish links and contacts were subject to harassment by hostile settler organisations. Eyewitness accounts can be read at eyewitnessblogs.com. The recently reported killing of the journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh in Jenin by the Israeli Army highlights the risks of bearing witness to the consequences of the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Masafer Yatta Court decision

The Israeli Supreme Court has made an order to allow the expulsion of around 1000 Palestinians from several villages in the South Hebron Hills in the southern part of the illegally occupied West Bank. The excuse for this decision is that the affected villages are in ‘Firing Zone’ or military training area. The real reason is to ethnically cleanse another part of the occupied West Bank and remove the small pastoralist communities that live there. The Nakba is not over but continues today. The ethnic cleansing continues. People in Northern Ireland might wish to write to their MPs to alert them to this further action that violates the Fourth Geneva conventions that state it is against international law to remove indigenous people from occupied territory. The British Balfour Project offers a suggested draft of a letter to MPs, which can also be sent to TDs.

Finally

I wish to draw your attention to Brian Brown’s excellent book comparing the apartheid that was practised in South Africa with the apartheid that is practiced today by Israel. Brian’s, ‘Apartheid South Africa! Apartheid Israel?’ Costs €15 with €10 P&P. To order a copy email kairosireland@gmail.com

The EU wide European Citizens Initiative petition to require the EU Commission to look at banning trade between the illegal Israeli Settlements on occupied land and EU countries is still open. Please go to (stopsettlements.org) to sign up. One million signatures are needed.