That justice and peace might embrace
Archbishop Stephen Cottrell visiting Susya Credit: Andrea Krogmann In Advent we light candles of hope in a world where the news is often a litany of war, occupation, hunger and oppression. The darkness of genocide still overshadows Gaza, where the killing and restriction of humanitarian aid continues despite the ceasefire. While the focus of international …
Martyn Turner’s cartoon sums up Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan for me. The cartoon depicts President Trump, the Don of Peace, with a laurel twig in his mouth flying past some birds. One bird says of the plan, ‘It’s crazy.’  The other bird says, ‘But let’s hope it works.’ After two years of death, destruction and displacement in Gaza of course we all want the peace plan to work. We want hostages and prisoners to be freed, the killing to end and a full resumption of aid for the people of Gaza. But we also want an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people. Without justice and freedom for Palestine a permanent peace is unlikely to be forthcoming from this plan.Â
The grim news about events in Gaza gets worse with the decision of the Israeli war cabinet to extend the scope of the war to a full military occupation of the Gaza strip. Gazans are still being starved. Hostages have not been freed. Journalists are being assassinated. People seeking food are being shot. At least …
Continue reading "Kairos Ireland August 2025 – No end to the suffering"
Ongoing Nakba The 15th of May marked the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, when Zionist forces ethnically cleansed Palestinians from over 500 Palestinian villages in 1948. Nakba continues today with the genocide in Gaza. Under the leadership of the suspected war criminal, Netanyahu, Israel has become a pariah state. It continues to bomb schools and …
Kairos Palestine Easter Appeal This year, Palestinian Christians in their Easter appeal ask the existential question, will the ‘living stones’, the indigenous Christian community of Palestine, endure or fade into history. The appeal says – ‘The threats facing us and all Palestinians—land confiscation, forced displacement, physical assaults and violent arrests, targeted killings, movement restrictions, economic …
Ceasefire in Gaza – reaction of Palestinian Christians Last week a ceasefire was agreed between the Israeli government and Hamas for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. The first exchange of prisoners took place on Sunday 19/01/2025. The full text of a statement issued by Kairos Palestine on the 20/01/25 in response to this agreement may …
Continue reading "Kairos Ireland Newsletter – January 2025 – Ceasefire in Gaza"
Call to European Churches: Why are you silent in the face of genocide? In a Christmas letter signed by Latin Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, Palestinian Christians ask of European Churches – Why are you silent in the face of Genocide? The letter points to opinions by international legal bodies and historians of the holocaust that …
Continue reading "Kairos Ireland Newsletter – Christmas 2024: Anatomy of a Genocide"
The Great Law of Birr - Lex Innocentium Front cover of the Great Law of Birr by James W Houlihan Earlier this year on the 21st September 2024 (UN International Day of Peace) there was a seminar in Birr, County Offaly, to relaunching the ‘Great Law of Birr’ (Lex Innocentium) that was enacted in 697AD …
Continue reading "Kairos Ireland Newsletter – November 2024"
Dublin Demonstration for Palestine – Saturday 5th October On Saturday 5th October there will be a national demonstration in Dublin starting from the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm. This will mark one year of the genocidal ‘Swords of Iron’ campaign by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people of Gaza during which more than 40,000 …
Nakba Day Nakba Day is marked on the 15th May. Nakba translates into English as ‘catastrophe’ and recalls the events of 1948 when three quarters of a million Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Zionist militias. This event was a planned instance of ethnic cleansing to make way for the establishment of the state …
