Opinion

Jim Gibney: Now is the right time to send a clear message to the expansionists in Israel

The modern Palestinian city of Bethlehem is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
The modern Palestinian city of Bethlehem is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank The modern Palestinian city of Bethlehem is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

It is unlikely that you will have heard of the name Ahmad Moustata Erekat.

Ahmad was a 28-year-old from Abu Dis, a town north of Bethlehem.

He was due to be married any time now. But on June 24, on an errand to pick up his mother and sister, who was to be married later that day, Ahmad became the latest victim of the racist Israeli government when he was shot dead at a checkpoint close to Abu Dis.

His mother and sister were in a beauty salon in Bethlehem preparing for his sister’s wedding. And were waiting on Ahmad to give them a lift home for the joyous occasion.

But the joy of that wedding and Ahmad’s pending wedding ended suddenly when an Israeli soldier shot him dead in circumstances which required Israeli soldiers to react differently to a minor incident.

React differently in not shooting Ahmad and react differently in providing him with medical assistance instead of leaving him to bleed to death outside his car and preventing an emergency ambulance team from treating him at the scene.

Ahmad was the nephew of Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the PLO and one of the organisation's senior negotiators for many years.

He accused the Israeli government of ‘cold-blooded murder’ and trying to excuse it by claiming that his nephew was dangerously driving the car at the soldiers at the checkpoint.

Eyewitness videos recording the incident show the car travelling slowly towards the checkpoint; the car crashing, Ahmad being shot and Israeli soldiers looking on while he bled to death.

Ahmad’s death took place against a background of more heightened tension in Palestine, if that is possible, given the Israeli governments plans to occupy even more Palestinian land in its Zionist expansionist plans for a ‘Greater Israel’.

The Israeli government’s insatiable appetite to illegally and flagrantly confiscate Palestinian land – the foundation of a Palestinian homeland and state – is threatening the very existence of that dream which for decades Palestinians have pursued.

I first heard of Ahmad when I joined an online debate organised by Cork’s Ogra Sinn Féin to oppose the Israeli government’s expansion annexation plans due to begin on July 1.

Two Palestinian cousins, Mohammad Assad Abu Srour and Mohammad Bassem Abu Srour, one a doctor studying in Cuba, spoke at the meeting with Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews.

The event is part of Sinn Féin’s national and international response to the annexation aggression.

In its international bulletin dedicated to the issue Mary Lou McDonald, Gerry Adams and Declan Kearney wrote articles calling on the Irish government to use its recently acquired seat on the UN Security Council to actively oppose annexation and for the Irish government to recognise the state of Palestine and implement the decision by the Oireachtas to oppose the selling of goods in the south made in occupied territories.

The Dáil in 2014 voted unanimously to recognise the state of Palestine and in 2018-19 the Seanad and the Dáil voted to ban the sale of goods in the south from ‘occupied territories’ anywhere in the world. And that obviously includes goods from Israel.

Yet the Irish government has failed to implement the will of the Oireachtas on the spurious grounds that the ‘time is not right’.

If ever there was a ‘right time’ to send a clear message to the expansionists in Israel then it is now and what a powerful message it would be if this new government implemented both decisions and used its seat on the UN Security Council to help the Palestinian people secure a state and homeland.

The threat to annex another 30 per cent of Palestinian land has caused outrage across the world.

Over 1,000 MPs in 25 countries across Europe signed a letter opposing annexation.

The EU’s effective minister for foreign affairs Josep Borrell warned of a reaction against Israel.

Former Irish president, Mary Robinson who chairs the ‘Elder’s Group’, set up by Nelson Mandela, called on EU leaders to consider suspending trading with Israel.

Governments and parliaments across Europe, including France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Belgian, Spain and Luxembourg and 250 prominent figures in South Africa have all urged sanctions against Israel should the delayed annexations plan proceed.

The annexation crisis presents an opportunity to supporters of the two-state solution to finally end the degradation of the Palestinian people. It should not be squandered.