Pictures: Cork restaurant event raises funds for the people of Gaza

A FUNDRAISING evening in a Cork restaurant has raised approximately €4,500 to help the people of Gaza.

About 100 people gathered recently in Il Padrino on Cook Street, with 15 volunteers preparing food for 85 guests, to raise funds to help Palestinian people living in Gaza.

Peyman Nasser, owner of Il Padrino, is a Tehran native who has lived in Cork for more than three decades, and he organised the fundraiser.

“We had a good turnout from the Palestinian community in the restaurant, about 10 to 15 people, some of them from Gaza,” Mr Nasser said.

“Izzeddeen Allcarajeh of Izz Café, which is a Palestinian restaurant on George’s Quay, he participated with some of the food, and we made the rest of the food in-house.

“We had a lot of people from different nationalities and a lot of Irish people too.”

Mr Nasser said Irish people had responded with great empathy to the plight of the people of Gaza.

“I believe that given the history of Ireland, Irish people will stand up for anyone who cannot stand up for themselves.

“The people in Gaza need help, they really badly need help.

“There are 70,000 houses collapsed completely, 142 government facilities destroyed, nearly 200 mosques destroyed, hundreds of schools and universities completely flattened, this is ethnic cleansing, up to 25 cemeteries destroyed, they don’t even want people visiting the dead,” he said.

With most of Gaza’s people hungry, and malnutrition now widespread on the Gaza Strip, aid agencies have described “pockets of famine” in the territory.

With the IDF destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of aid to Gaza, the UN’s leading expert on the right to food this week accused Israel of intentionally starving Palestinians.

In an interview with The Guardian, Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, said Israel should be held responsible for war crimes and genocide.

“Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian.

“In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide,” Mr Fakhri said.

Following the success of this week’s fundraiser, Mr Nasser said Il Padrino will host another fundraiser for Gaza in the near future.

Mr Nasser said it was his hope that there might be a permanent ceasefire in the near future, but even then the people of Gaza would be in need of help and support for years to come.

“I know the people in Cork are never found wanting when it comes to helping people who are suffering persecution, so we will be making our restaurant available for another fundraiser again very soon,” Mr Nasser said.