https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RP0_66GTuI

Last night at least two Palestinians were killed and 200 wounded in the West Bank during a ‘Solidarity  March’ against Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Elaine Bradley, an Irish human rights activist working in Palestine, was among the marchers.

Elaine writes:

Last night I acquired the dubious skill of being able to distinguish between live fire and a rubber bullet when being shot at. Thank you Israel for that lesson. Thank you too for teaching me that I should not assume that if I am part of a peaceful protest that includes families, children – that I will be safe.

Together with a friend I joined 20,000 people on the outskirts of Ramallah to take part in the ’48 march in solidarity with the people of Gaza and to protest the actions of Israel there. The aim was to march to Jerusalem – 3 miles from the notorious Qalandia checkpoint.

Everyone was united under the Palestinian flag, an unusual occurrence in a place with many factions that don’t see eye-to-eye. Whole families had turned out – one woman with her baby in a sling walked beside us for a while.

There was an electric atmosphere verging on festive with music blaring from lorries. The crowd sang along and occasionally broke into chants. We walked a couple of miles down the wide street towards the checkpoint in a massive throng. It was immensely powerful and uplifting despite these dark days for Palestine.

Before we got within sight of Qalandia checkpoint clouds of teargas were visible hanging in a vaporous blanket and the loud report of the tear gas cannisters was startling. I had been warned by a friend to bring an onion – apparently it counteracts teargas effects. People in the crowd around me who had been wearing their kuffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) around their necks, started to swaddle their faces with them. I had always thought that was because people didn’t want to be recognized by the IOF, now I know different.

News of what was happening ahead travelled through the crowd like an auditory Mexican wave. The IOF had blocked the checkpoint, had heavy security there and were not going to let us through. No surprise really.

What was a surprise was how quickly things descended into mayhem. As we rounded a corner Qalandia was ablaze before us. Great flames were leaping into the air where some had set fire to tyres. At this point the crowd sorted itself into groups- young men who were no strangers to these confrontations surged forwards, families, elderly people hung back. We were somewhere in between.

Suddenly a noise, hard to describe – a sound between a ping and a whizz, flashed close by. I stood like an eejit for a split second, not comprehending until I saw every one around me had hunkered down. “They are firing on us with live bullets” said my friend as I dropped down. More firing. No one panicked but turned back and ran in a crouched position, as did I. My friend and I moved back 20 yards and stood to the side of the street beside a shop.

The soundtrack to the night had dramatically changed from music and chanting to ambulance sirens, the bang of teargas cannisters and shots. From the Palestinian crowd fireworks were launched, that together with the Israeli flares gave the whole scene a surreal beauty reminiscent of a scene in Apocalypse Now.

I used my iPhone to video what was happening at what I thought was a safe distance until beside, me several feet away there was a loud metallic bang. A rubber tipped bullet had hit the metal shop. At this point my friend took my hand and said “Come- we need to get out of here. It is not safe”.

As we retreated fleets of ambulances were trying to make their way through the crowd to pick up the wounded. The word spread that someone had been shot in the head. One martyr, three martyrs? So many ambulances – was it 20 or 50? Hard to tell.

I made it safely home but didn’t sleep. The ambulance sirens continued well into the morning of this day. I check the Internet – 2 dead, over 200 wounded. The IOF are saying that they were fired on by Palestinians. Really? So how many IOF soldiers were shot?

An Amnesty International Report of earlier this year entitled Trigger-Happy: Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank states “Israeli forces have repeatedly violated their obligations under international human rights law by using excessive force to stifle dissent and freedom of expression.” This sums it up.

The international community has abandoned Palestine and the Palestinians – it’s normalisation or nothing! I am deeply ashamed of our own government’s position – both at EU level, and in their abstaining from the vote at the UN for an investigation into war crimes in Gaza.

But the Palestinian people show time and again that they will not back down in the face of the monstrous injustices inflicted on them. Having been brought up in the traditions of freedom and democracy, I am proud to have been part of last night’s march, to stand in solidarity with a people who are seeking nothing more than justice and liberation.

Elaine Bradley.

Previously: ‘The Mask Is Off And People Know’

Pic Julia Mcfarlane

Horrible scenes from Beit Hanoun elementary school, northern #Gaza strip blood spread everywhere pic.twitter.com/AtOf5Cq9Gn

— Hazem Balousha (@iHaZeMi) July 24, 2014

Former Ireland and Munster rugby player Trevor Hogan speaking at the Mourning the Dead, Standing in Solidarity with the Living demonstration at the top of Grafton Street in Dublin last night.

Previously: ‘Die-In’ For Gaza

His Mates Go To Krystle

Thanks Mark Malone

An Israeli strike over Gaza City on Tuesday

What Israel and Hamas could learn from the British Government and the IRA.

No wait come back.

Eamon Delaney writes:

The Israeli operation in Gaza is only the latest installment in a bleak and unending conflict. In 2009, Israel invaded Gaza with Operation Cast Lead, in 2011 there was Operation Pillar of Defence, and now there is Operation Protective Edge. They sound like the names of computer war games, but the outcome is always the same: Israel dampens down Palestinian resistance, Gaza goes back under siege and then the pressure cooker builds until Hamas decide to fling a few more rockets into Israel. And off we go again.

The present conflict is actually worse than before in that the old parameters are gone. The US has much less restraint over Israel now and little interest in getting more involved, being overstretched elsewhere and with a deteriorated relationship with Jerusalem. It remains Israel’s most steadfast ally, but the US is fed up with constant Israel settlement building in the West Bank and fed up with the insincere and meaningless ‘peace process’.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians have much less leverage over Hamas, now that Mubarak is gone, and the Muslim Brotherhood government (who were in power for the last Gaza escalation) has been replaced by a reactionary military government. So Hamas will feel, with Gaza effectively under long term siege by Israel, that it has nothing to lose and might as well go on firing rockets into Israel and showing at least token Palestinian resistance.

This is hugely challenging for Israel which now has the nightmare of an open ended, unending war with a well-resourced militant group. Especially, when the Israeli response is usually so disproportionate and results in the civilian casualties that appall the world.

And this is the crucial thing: the current proliferation of cameras, social media and rolling news has given Israel no hiding place and exposes what they do to universal condemnation, even among those who generally support them. The Israelis cannot go on fighting these disputes the way they used to. There is a huge propaganda war about Gaza on Twitter and Facebook and Israel is losing it.

But Israel insists on finding a military, and not a political, solution to the problem. It says there cannot be negotiations with Hamas as the latter doesn’t recognise Israel’s right to exist. But Sinn Fein and the IRA have never accepted British rule in Northern Ireland yet this hasn’t prevented them from doing a peace deal with the enemy. But such an approach would require a sea change in official Israeli thinking which in recent years has tacked further to the right and to non-compromise.

In fact, Hamas is a disciplined and stable organisation, unlike the old PLO, and could well be the sort of adversary that Israel could work with. It is not a wild jihadi organisation which Israel well knows and which is why it wants to curb Hamas but not destroy it. In volatile Gaza, Hamas is a preferable counterweight to the genuine (and growing) jihadi extremists.

Meanwhile, in Ireland and elsewhere, the Israeli actions provoke condemnation but much of this protest is highly selective and opportunistic. Where are these protestors when atrocities are committed by Syria or Sri Lanka or other countries? Has there ever been a march on the salubrious Iranian Embassy in Blackrock? And what about Russia, which recently absorbed the Crimea? No, instead it is really only the Zionist hobby horse, and of course, the US itself, that gets these protestors out with their placards. You will rarely see them highlighting the horrendous atrocities in African countries such as the Congo or Mali, for example.

Interestingly, when I made this point to Richard Boyd Barrett TD some time ago he appeared to acknowledge the disproportionate focus on Israel and assured me that the protestors would also be vocal on other conflicts such as Syria. But this doesn’t seem to have happened. And indeed, given the language of Boyd Barrett speaking about Gaza outside the Dail last week, you’d have to wonder how there could ever be a peace in Gaza. Boyd Barrett is not only opposed to the Israeli occupation of captured territories since 1967, as many protestors are, but to the very existence of Israel itself which he says was ‘born in apartheid and racism’. But this in itself is surely a racist statement, about a State set up in 1948 by the United Nations.

Israel may be showing a disproportionate response in its current actions- it always does- but it has had over 1500 Hamas rockets landing in their country in the past week. And only for its Iron Dome defence system, there would certainly have been many casualties. What would the Irish or French Government do if that happened to their territory? They would certainly not stand idly by.

Eamon Delaney is a journalist and former diplomat

(AFP)

While Ireland abstained.

Jeneen Ijawi (12) from Dublin (above) holds up two names of children killed in Gaza surrounded by representations of blood stained shirts outside the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin last night.

The demonstration was organised by Gaza Action Ireland protesting against the ongoing conflict involving Palestine and Israel focusing on the bombing by Israel on civilians in Gaza.

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

A demonstration and ‘die-in’ outside the Department of Foreign Affairs, Stephen’s Green, Dublin at 5.30pm.

Gaza Action Ireland writes:

“This demonstration is a chance to stand with Palestine and demand a meaningful response from the Government. Members of the Palestinian community in Ireland will share their grief, anger and determination in the face of Israeli’s assault. The action will include a ‘die-in’: bring a white T-shirt or sheet, pre-splattered or ready to be splattered with red. Signs bearing the names and ages of the dead will be supplied. Beginning at the Dept of Foreign Affairs on Stephen’s Green South, it will move to the top of Grafton Street. Supported by the IPSC, Sadaka and the Palestinian Community in Ireland.”

Gaza Action ireland Demonstration (Facebook)