Each weekend sees our vigil offer support and solidarity to the besieged people of Gaza and, unfortunately, beyond as Israel seeks to expand its wars in pursuit of its lebensraum policy of land theft.
Yes, our vigil is small. That is to be expected as war fatigue sets in. The demands of life don't ease up because wars are being waged in far off places. That we still turn out in spite of so many distractions and weariness is a testament to the concern felt in this town about what is happening to our fellow human beings.
Admittedly, not all in the town are given to compassion and empathy. There is a far right element driven by hate and all too willing to set upon those who escape wars and arrive here in the hope of refuge. What we do at our vigils is an effort to offer the most vulnerable a psychological shield and shelter against the elements of cruelty that stalk this world.
It is important that we continue our efforts and that we do not desist from standing with those once described by Frantz Fanon as the Wretched of the Earth against the hatred of those best described as the Wicked of the Earth.
Occasionally we get the heckler, screaming about god, Ireland for the Irish, or throwing those who seek shelter and refuge out of this country. There is little point debating the matter with them. They heckle to drown out reason and rational discussion. The best we can do is extend our compassion to them by advising them to wear hats when they heckle as there might be a woodpecker hovering ready to pounce on a tasty wooden head. It will be good for both the bigot and the bird. No hole pecked in the heckler's head, and the woodpecker not poisoned by the contents of a toxic brain.
This week in the UN General Assembly a resolution was adopted with a huge majority calling on Israel to bring to 'an end without delay its unlawful presence' in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 124 nations backed the resolution, 14 opposed it and 43 abstained. The General Assembly resolution, to quote Omar Barghouti, was an overwhelming call for sanctions against the terror state. According to UN News:
The resolution stems from the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, in which the Court declared that Israel’s continued presence in the Territory “is unlawful”, and that “all States are under an obligation not to recognize” the decades-long occupation.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, described the vote as a turning point “in our struggle for freedom and justice.”
Entirely predictable that the US would be among the opponents of anything that might resemble freedom and justice. It is quite happy that it's colonial outpost in the Middle East continues to colonise and occupy stolen lands. In supporting and arming Israel's occupation, the US shows a blatant contempt for international law. Yet it has the chutzpah to criticise Russia for its breaches of international law through its ongoing occupation of Ukraine. And while the Russian war on Ukraine is wholly unjustified, the crimes of Russia in its own occupied territory are miniscule to those inflicted by Israel.
Israel dismissed the Resolution, claiming that it was the UN backing the Palestinian Authority's 'diplomatic terrorism.' Everything Israel wants to obliterate, even babies, it first describes as terrorist. Emboldened by US support and its attempts to bully South Africa into withdrawing its case against it currently before the International Court of Justice, the Israeli state only this week in a further bid to weaken any concept of international law, made its own submissions to the International Criminal Court, a body it has long refused to engage with. The Kapo state is urgently seeking to block any arrest warrants that might be issued for its terrorist leaders.
Entirely predictable that the US would be among the opponents of anything that might resemble freedom and justice. It is quite happy that it's colonial outpost in the Middle East continues to colonise and occupy stolen lands. In supporting and arming Israel's occupation, the US shows a blatant contempt for international law. Yet it has the chutzpah to criticise Russia for its breaches of international law through its ongoing occupation of Ukraine. And while the Russian war on Ukraine is wholly unjustified, the crimes of Russia in its own occupied territory are miniscule to those inflicted by Israel.
Israel dismissed the Resolution, claiming that it was the UN backing the Palestinian Authority's 'diplomatic terrorism.' Everything Israel wants to obliterate, even babies, it first describes as terrorist. Emboldened by US support and its attempts to bully South Africa into withdrawing its case against it currently before the International Court of Justice, the Israeli state only this week in a further bid to weaken any concept of international law, made its own submissions to the International Criminal Court, a body it has long refused to engage with. The Kapo state is urgently seeking to block any arrest warrants that might be issued for its terrorist leaders.
This is why our weekly vigil is important. On its own it is wholly ineffective against the power of the Kapo state and its Western allies. But as part of a wider international solidarity network, it is a thread in a rope that is being metaphorically woven for the necks of war criminals rarely seen operating so brazenly on the world stage since the Nuremburg Nazis.
Opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, I nevertheless find a deep ethical connotation to the figurative demand - Gallant To The Gallows.
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