An IDF officer is reported in this morning’s Jerusalem Post describing how IDF paratroopers landing by helicopter on the ships in international waters were ‘ambushed’ by aid workers ‘armed’ with whatever was at hand! I am already aware that language has lost all meaning to the Israeli authorities having received some e-mails myself from the Israeli Embassy in Dublin late last week defending their position when I making representations to them in anticipation of the attacks on the aid flotilla.
The Israeli government and the IDF commanders order these atrocities safe in the knowledge that their allies in the west will leave them unchallenged. Indeed by welcoming Israel into the OECD last week the Israeli political establishment can now label itself as part of the ‘advanced’ west.
I condemn this attack and demand that that MV Rachael Corrie which left Dundalk harbour this weekend carrying aid for Gaza be allowed to make its journey without harassment. I call on people to attend the demonstration today at 6pm in O’Connell Street in solidarity with these activists and the people of Gaza.
While the Israeli government claims to be acting in the interests of the Israeli population it uses methods, like the permanent blockade of Gaza, that are reminiscent of the collective punishment imposed in the past on Jews in the old ghettos of Europe. This Israeli government does not defend the real, long-term interests of Israeli citizens and oppresses the Palestinians. Only a joint movement of ordinary Palestinians and Israeli Jews against the Israeli capitalist state can prevent further atrocities and secure democratic rights for all.
The Egyptian government must immediately open its border with Gaza and allow free movement across it.
By John Quigley
The decision by the Western Health Trust to cut nursing home places “is a direct attack on the elderly and the vulnerable” according to Domhnall O’Cobhthaigh, Fermanagh Socialist Party representative.
Across Europe governments are pursuing the same policy of savage cuts
The Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey closed in May. Now all patients in the Northern Trust area have to travel to the Antrim Area Hospital. The Antrim Hospital was widely accepted to be under immense pressure before these closures. The situation will deteriorate further now, with even longer waiting times for casualty treatment and even more patients spending hours or days on trolleys. Prior to this latest cutback the Northern Trust had halted more complex surgery at the Mid-Ulster Hospital and Whiteabbey Hospital and concentrated it at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Both smaller hospitals are no longer acute hospitals, dealing with a full range of illness, and accessible to the surrounding population.