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Today as armed exchanges took place between two very unequal forces in Occupied Palestine, we assembled again at the Tholsel in Drogheda. Our purpose was the same as last week - to oppose the Israeli war of terror on Gaza. There were not as many of us this time but enough to capture attention. The rain probably had an effect, but also the three day ceasefire, now ended, perhaps took some of the perceived urgency out of the matter. Nevertheless, all of us who gathered were aware that people who were alive in Gaza this time last week didn’t make it through. It was their last Friday alive. Israel had murdered them. 

The rain made it uncomfortable, for sure, and it was heartening to observe a van stop and see the driver throw an umbrella to one of the protestors. People help in their own way. While we might have shuffled unceremoniously we could hardly complain about the need to dodge droplets which will certainly not drown us. Try dodging bombs from F-16s. While it is not raining rockets we can afford to stand in the open. 

Sinn Fein organised the vigil. It was as well it did because no other political party in Drogheda seems to be taking a leading role. While some balk at attending Sinn Fein organised events, preferring to question the party leadership’s motives, a more pressing concern at this juncture is why Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail are not organising vigils or protests in the middle of Drogheda. We have crimes against humanity taking place in front of our eyes and it is being met with muted protest from the larynx of the political class. Well lubricated when it comes to cutting benefits or imposing austerity it parches up in the face of mechanised mass murder. I am very much in agreement with the commenter on this site, David Higgins, who while deeply critical of Sinn Fein, sees it doing more to alleviate the suffering in Gaza than the other political parties. One of our local TDs, Labour's Gerald Nash is supposed to be Chair of the Oireachtas Friends of Palestine Group. But how are we to know? What has he said? What has he done? With friends like him …



I went along today with my wife and a Croatian woman whom we first met as we staged our own vigil on the footbridge across the Boyne two weeks ago. We initially fell in with the main body on West Street, but on noticing a gap on one of the stretches filled last week we assumed position there, giving the protest a more rounded appearance and ensuring that nobody got through the junction without seeing some message. It might have looked as if we were putting physical space between ourselves and the Sinn Fein protest but it wasn’t the case. We were all part of the same gathering and reassembled in the one spot at the end to listen to the Sinn Fein speaker inform us that we would be back again next week, applauding politely when she had finished.

Small yes, but a thread in the vitally important cloak of de-legitimacy being weaved around Israel. Palestinian troops, despite their unquestionable courage in legitimately battling the Israeli terrorists in the rubble of Gaza are, in the words of Norman Finkelstein, not going to overcome the sheer military might of the Israeli state with fireworks and Roman candles. While ‘the intensity of the fighting ... surprised Israeli commanders’, and Hamas is 'far from disabled', Israel ultimately does not view Hamas as posing a serious military threat against a state that can summon up vast quantities of US war supplies, and has technological strength in depth. It merely uses the threat from Hamas as a pretext for launching its massacres. What Israel seems to fear most is the pariah status assigned to Apartheid South Africa within the international community. The Palestinians cannot do it alone, any more than the black population of South Africa could. Nor should it be left to do it alone. International and human solidarity requires every shoulder at the wheel.



In the Rain Against Raining Rockets


Today as armed exchanges took place between two very unequal forces in Occupied Palestine, we assembled again at the Tholsel in Drogheda. Our purpose was the same as last week - to oppose the Israeli war of terror on Gaza. There were not as many of us this time but enough to capture attention. The rain probably had an effect, but also the three day ceasefire, now ended, perhaps took some of the perceived urgency out of the matter. Nevertheless, all of us who gathered were aware that people who were alive in Gaza this time last week didn’t make it through. It was their last Friday alive. Israel had murdered them. 

The rain made it uncomfortable, for sure, and it was heartening to observe a van stop and see the driver throw an umbrella to one of the protestors. People help in their own way. While we might have shuffled unceremoniously we could hardly complain about the need to dodge droplets which will certainly not drown us. Try dodging bombs from F-16s. While it is not raining rockets we can afford to stand in the open. 

Sinn Fein organised the vigil. It was as well it did because no other political party in Drogheda seems to be taking a leading role. While some balk at attending Sinn Fein organised events, preferring to question the party leadership’s motives, a more pressing concern at this juncture is why Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail are not organising vigils or protests in the middle of Drogheda. We have crimes against humanity taking place in front of our eyes and it is being met with muted protest from the larynx of the political class. Well lubricated when it comes to cutting benefits or imposing austerity it parches up in the face of mechanised mass murder. I am very much in agreement with the commenter on this site, David Higgins, who while deeply critical of Sinn Fein, sees it doing more to alleviate the suffering in Gaza than the other political parties. One of our local TDs, Labour's Gerald Nash is supposed to be Chair of the Oireachtas Friends of Palestine Group. But how are we to know? What has he said? What has he done? With friends like him …



I went along today with my wife and a Croatian woman whom we first met as we staged our own vigil on the footbridge across the Boyne two weeks ago. We initially fell in with the main body on West Street, but on noticing a gap on one of the stretches filled last week we assumed position there, giving the protest a more rounded appearance and ensuring that nobody got through the junction without seeing some message. It might have looked as if we were putting physical space between ourselves and the Sinn Fein protest but it wasn’t the case. We were all part of the same gathering and reassembled in the one spot at the end to listen to the Sinn Fein speaker inform us that we would be back again next week, applauding politely when she had finished.

Small yes, but a thread in the vitally important cloak of de-legitimacy being weaved around Israel. Palestinian troops, despite their unquestionable courage in legitimately battling the Israeli terrorists in the rubble of Gaza are, in the words of Norman Finkelstein, not going to overcome the sheer military might of the Israeli state with fireworks and Roman candles. While ‘the intensity of the fighting ... surprised Israeli commanders’, and Hamas is 'far from disabled', Israel ultimately does not view Hamas as posing a serious military threat against a state that can summon up vast quantities of US war supplies, and has technological strength in depth. It merely uses the threat from Hamas as a pretext for launching its massacres. What Israel seems to fear most is the pariah status assigned to Apartheid South Africa within the international community. The Palestinians cannot do it alone, any more than the black population of South Africa could. Nor should it be left to do it alone. International and human solidarity requires every shoulder at the wheel.



#IsupportGaza Gaza solidarity events Israeli Terror War on Gaza

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