By Palestine Chronicle Staff 
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Irish people could not be clearer. We are repulsed by your actions. Ceasefire now and let the aid flow safely.”
Simon Harris, leader of Ireland’s Fine Gael party, has issued a stern message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Irish people are “repulsed” by his actions in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“In Gaza, we see a humanitarian catastrophe worsen before our eyes,” he said in his first speech as party leader on Saturday.
Harris said that while he condemned the October 7 operation and called for the “unconditional release” of Israeli captives, “we cannot and we will not stay silent on the actions of the Israeli government.”
In a wide-ranging address to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis, Simon Harris issued a blunt message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that Ireland is “repulsed” by his actionshttps://t.co/CwM7uWlaiK
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 6, 2024
“Reason has been replaced by revenge, by bombing, by maiming and by the death of children. Famine, a specter no Irish person can bear and anyone who can countenance deliberate starvations has lost their sense of humanity,” he continued.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Irish people could not be clearer. We are repulsed by your actions. Ceasefire now and let the aid flow safely,” Harris said, to a standing ovation.
He further pledged support for “a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.”
“I reiterate that Ireland stands ready to recognize the state of Palestine.”
‘History in Their Eyes’
Harris, at age 37, is expected to be elected as the country’s youngest prime minister next week. This follows Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadker’s sudden resignation last month.
Just days before his resignation, Varadker delivered a passionate St Patrick’s Day speech at the White House, in which he said the Irish people were “deeply troubled” by what was happening in Gaza because “we see history in their eyes.”
“A story of displacement, of dispossession, a national identity, questions are denied, forced emigration, discrimination and now hunger,” he said, adding that “the people in Gaza (…) need the bombs to stop.”
ICJ Case
Late last month, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defense, Micheal Martin, announced that the country would intervene in the case initiated by South Africa against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The decision followed an analysis of the legal and policy issues arising in the case, and consultation with partners, including South Africa.
“What we are seeing in Gaza now represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale,” Martin said.
Over 33,100 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 33,175 Palestinians have been killed, and 75,886 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in the enclave.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
