BLAGAROON

ISRAEL'S TERROR ATTACK
ON PALESTINIAN
CIVIL POPULATION

After a week of aerial bombardment causing 0ver 400 deaths and thousands of wounded, Israeli Army ground forces entered the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza strip, on the border between Israel and Egypt, on Saturday, Eanáir/January 3rd to mount a further campaign of destruction and mayhem which, while ostensibly directed against militants of the Hamas organisation firing rockets into southern Israel, has inevitably caused extreme trauma and further devastating casualties to the entrapped and defenceless civil population of the densely inhabited strip. The Gaza strip is a creation of the Zionist invasion of Palestine in 1948 which established the Zionist Israeli State in the area and was later occupied by Israeli forces in 1967 in a third war against its Arab neighbours.

Forcibly separated from their Palestinian brethren in the so-called “West Bank” of the River Jordan by the establishment of Zionist Israel, the population have suffered Israeli Occupation from 1967 until 2005 when the Israelis withdrew from the territory but, maintained a total blockade on its borders, cutting off all outside contacts except as dictated by the Israeli government. This intolerable situation, of a million and a half people held in the largest concentration camp ever seen in the world, totally in breach of all international law and human rights conventions, has been made immeasurably worse by the current military actions by Israel. The brutality and destruction wreaked by massive Israeli firepower from weapons supplied by the USA has shocked the world and led to huge public protests all over the Muslim world and in every capital in Europe in the past week.

BARBOUROUS

In a new and shocking barbarity, Israeli forces bombarded two UN controlled school buildings today killing over thirty civilians,and wounding dozens of others, mostly women and children, seeking shelter there from the fighting in the streets outside. This atrocity, justified by Israeli spokespeople claiming Hamas operatives were in the buildings and firing weapons, without a shred of evidence for such statements but given full coverage by western media without challenge, has added urgency to world-wide demands for an immediate end to the Israeli aggression and the normalisation of living conditions in Gaza. There must be no delay in a concerted action by international effort to bring this about.

EU: ALL TALK AND NO ACTION

Despite widespread calls for a ceasefire by EU Foreign Ministers, including Ireland’s Micheál Martin, Israel has ignored all such appeals and carried on with its brutal aggression cynically started in the inter-regnum in Washington, Israel’s main arms supplier, where effective restraint cannot be imposed until after the inauguration of new President Barack Obama on January 20^th.

Yet the EU leaders have even more levers of pressure on Israel at their disposal than the USA has currently. Israel’s trade and communications are heavily dependent on European ports and networks for their daily operations. Their airlines must use EU airports for re-fuelling on the routes to the USA. Their financial operations must use EU banks and financial institutions. The EU leaders could order an immediate blockade of Israeli trade and communications and financial dealings shutting down their economy within hours. It is time they used this power in support of a defenceless civilian population in Gaza. No fiddling at the UN while Gaza burns; no waiting on Washington ceremonials. BOYCOTT ISRAEL NOW! FREEZE THEIR FINANCIAL ASSETS! BAN THEIR SHIPS AND AIRLINES FROM EUROPE; CUT OFF ALL POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES; CANCEL ALL FINANCIAL AID; CUT ALL TELEPHONE AND INTERNET LINKS!

The conscience of the peoples of Europe and the world, demands ACTION now!

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 06 Eanáir/January 2009.