Tag Archives: Israel

Historian Dr Tomás Mac Conmara writes about his time in Palestine considering recent events in Gaza. Over recent weeks, as events in Gaza unfolded, I listened carefully to the words of many. Words of Israelis. Words of Palestinians. Media words. Words of an American President. Words of European leaders and of course, words of those in political leadership in Ireland. All these words are important. Words matter and words spoken at such times matter intensely. Words form stories and stories form narratives. Narratives form impressions. When unchallenged, they can sometimes become the truth. For much of the western media, events in Gaza commenced on 7th October. This of course is not the case. In 2011, after many years of instinctive support for the Palestinian cause, I made the decision to travel there. I had read many books and studied the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Yet I still understood little. I have always lived according to the principle …

CLARE Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe has tendered his resignation from the Ireland-Israel parliamentary friendship committee in protest against Israeli state aggression in the disputed Gaza Strip/West Bank region and in solidarity with those impacted by this action. “I have contacted the Ceann Comhairle’s office this afternoon to inform him of my intentions to resign from the Ireland-Israel parliamentary friendship committee with immediate effect,” said Deputy Crowe. “I am doing so in protest against continued Israeli aggression and incursions into disputed parts of the Gaza Strip. “In recent days, there has been a huge escalation of violence in the Gaza area with rockets being fired by both militant fighters on the Palestinian side and the Israeli Armed Forces. “I don’t condone what either side is doing but I think the root cause of this latest ignition of violence has been works to create a new Israeli settlement in the disputed land earlier this month. “The Israeli government has acted very …

SCARIFF singer Sarah McTernan will represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Sarah will sing ’22’ in the Israeli capital in May. She will be 25 on Monday and first came to national prominence when performing in the Voice of Ireland. Sarah will sing the song publicly this Sunday on Dancing With The Stars.

ENNIS man Alan Keane and his wife, Trish visited one of the Baha’i faith’s most sacred places at Mount Carmel in Israel recently. Alan served for a time in the Baha’i world centre in Haifa, in a voluntary capacity and was invited back for some consultancy work “It was really wonderful being there again and meeting up with people I hadn’t seen for years,” Alan said. “I very much enjoyed accompanying Alan on his trip,” said Trish. “It was so spiritually uplifting to be close to the Baha’i holy places, remembering all those who asked to be remembered and basking in the sacred atmosphere of the beautiful gardens,” Trish said. The world centre of the Baha’i faith is staffed primarily by volunteers from all over the world.

The group behind Kinvara’s business boycott of Israeli goods has described the response to the collective move as “overwhelming”. Just over a week ago, three local people, inspired by the images of Gaza on their television screens, decided to approach businesses in the area to see if they would take part in a boycott of Israeli goods. Since the boycott was announced in last Thursday’s Clare Champion, John Griffin, Frank Naughton and Vicky Donnelly have been inundated with support locally, nationally and even internationally. “The response has been overwhelming. We were really taken aback from the level of the response and the good feeling from the article and on social media. It seems to have really hit a chord with people,” Ms Donnelly said. “All three of us have been approached by people in the community who are delighted to see an action like this happening here. We have received messages of support across social media and even by phone. …

Businesses and consumers in Kinvara have taken a collective stand against Israel’s actions in Gaza by pledging to support the growing boycott of Israeli produce. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign said they were unaware of any other town or village that had taken this type of united action. The idea for the campaign emerged from numerous conversations at a local level, about what ordinary people could do to help end the bloodshed in Gaza. The subsequent appeal to local businesses was led by John Griffin, Frank Naughton and Vicky Donnelly, three members of the Kinvara community. “Like most people, we were sickened by the carnage we were seeing on our screens and felt helpless to do anything, until we decided to approach all the relevant businesses in our community to support the boycott of Israeli produce. The fact that we’ve had such a positive response sends out a strong message of solidarity,” John Griffin explained. According to Vicky, the campaign …