IFPAL Press Release 29th June

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Tuesday June 30, 2009 11:50 by Sean Clinton - IFPAL

Six months after the end of "Operation Cast Lead", Israel's lethal assault on the civilian population of Gaza that left at least 1400 dead, the International Committee of the Red Cross has stated that the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are still "trapped in despair".

According to the ICRC, Gaza residents lack adequate shelter after the destruction of their homes, the water supply is patchy, and sanitation is on the point of collapse. Building materials are not getting into Gaza, while basic medicines and reliable hospital equipment are in short supply. Gaza's economy, already in crisis after two years of blockade by Israel, is now at a standstill and its population has been reduced to poverty. According to the Red Cross, "Worst affected are the children, who make up more than half of Gaza's population".

Sean Clinton, a spokesman for the recently formed group IFPAL (Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon), commented that "while Israel is clearly to blame for this shocking situation, it has been assisted in maintaining its illegal blockade on the Gaza Strip over the last two years by the governments of Egypt and the European Union, which are jointly responsible for controlling the border crossing-point at Rafah.

Not only has the EU acquiesced in Egypt's collusion with the Israeli regime which has seen huge quantities of humanitarian supplies held up at Rafah, but the EU has consistently failed to penalise Israel for its ongoing violations of Palestinian human and political rights, while penalising the Palestinians for having elected Hamas in January 2006 by refusing to accept the election results and continuing to make demands of Hamas that are never made of Israel. The EU’s purported shared values of human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights stand exposed as worthless rhetoric. Five months on from the Israeli assault not a single shipment of aid has been sent by the EU via international waters to the port of Gaza – a telling indictment of the EU’s contempt for the values so liberally proclaimed in every EU treaty including the Lisbon Treaty.

Instead of responding to Israel's breaches of the ‘essential’ human rights provisions of its Association Agreement with the EU - which grants Israel trading privileges - with suspension of that Agreement, the EU has signalled its intention to upgrade Israel's status as if its actions merited reward rather than sanctions. The recent decision to postpone this upgrade is clearly cosmetic, since all the structures have been put in place for its implementation as soon as the public outrage has subsided and the Lisbon referendum in Ireland has taken place."

Mr Clinton concluded: "The EU's actions constitute one-sided political support for the Israeli rogue state. We believe that such support does not represent the wishes of the Irish people, who have consistently expressed their sympathy for the Palestinian cause. Nonetheless, and despite Minister Martin's occasional token criticisms of Israel, our government has allowed its policy on Palestine to be dictated by large states like Germany, France, and the UK which have a pro-Israeli agenda due to the activities of powerful Zionist lobbies.”

IFPAL calls on the Irish people to vote No to Lisbon, thus calling a halt to the implementation of a Common Foreign and Security Policy which is subject to manipulation by embedded political lobby groups that are inimical to the interests of the Palestinians, to the protection of human rights and to Ireland's good standing internationally.