Cork TD calls for a total ceasefire in Gaza

WCNSF is the new acronym used by medics for some patients in Gaza’s hospitals.

It stands for “Wounded Child No Surviving Family”.

It is estimated that there are now more than 5000 Palestinian children who will need surgeries at several points in their lives so serious are their injuries.

Many of these children are in hospitals where medics have to perform amputations without the use of anaesthetics.

These are some of the children who have survived. More than 4000 have not. Little wonder that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guiterres refers to Gaza as “a graveyard for children”.

Words such as “war” and “invasion” are no longer sufficient to describe the brutality of the Israeli State - we are now into the territory of “ethnic cleansing”, “genocide” and “war crimes” in my view.

The Hamas atrocities of October 7 were brutal, horrific and indiscriminate. The targetting of innocent civilians was utterly wrong and must be wholly opposed. Furthermore, it did nothing to further the cause of Palestinian freedom.

But the actions of the Israeli State are the very definition of an unjust war.

Their actions amount to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and a murderous drive to extend a racist occupation.

World leaders like Biden, von der Leyen, Macron and Sunak have flown to Tel Aviv, embraced Netanyahu and given their blessing to Israel’s war.

True, they have often coupled their support with appeals for “humanitarian pauses” and the like.

But what is a “humanitarian pause”? It amounts to partial cessations of violence for short time periods before a campaign of brutal violence restarts in all its murderous horror.

What is needed now is not war laced with “humanitarian pauses” but a total ceasefire.

The pressure for this will not come from world leaders, it can only come from below.

At this moment, resistance from ordinary people to Israel’s war comes in many forms.

The Palestinian people resist simply by surviving in the face of such terror.

Then there is the resistance of millions across the globe who have taken to the streets. Up to half a million have marched in London and 300,000 in Washington DC (the largest Palestinian sokidarity demonstration in US history). In Arab states marches have been so massive that corrupt dictatorships fear for their future.

Belgian transport workers are refusing to transport war materials bound for Israel.

The Jewish Voice For Peace group have occupied the US Congress and Central Station in NYC.

All these forms of resistance now urgently need to be spread and stepped up.

Here in Ireland, under pressure from public opinion, Government politicians have been more critical of Israel’s leaders than their counterparts in other EU countries.

However, they have failed to match their words with deeds at a time when action is urgently needed.

I think that Ireland should become the first country in Europe to expel its Israeli Ambassador.

Every other country would more or less immediately come under pressure to follow the Irish example.

This, in turn, would represent a significant point of pressure on Israel’s leaders.

Increasing pressure on Israel’s leaders is also the best way to secure the future for the Irish-Palestinian citizens currently trapped in Gaza.

Every worker in an employment that trades with Israel needs to consider what action they and their workmates can take to strike a blow, however small, against this bloody assault.

The Dunnes Stores workers showed the way in the 1980s by boycotting produce from apartheid South Africa.

Any worker who follows that example today deserves every support the trade union movement can provide.

James Connolly once said “The Irish working class remain as the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland”.

Millions of working people have taken a stand with Palestine, while the West’s capitalist leaders have backed Israel’s brutal assault.

Real progressive change only comes from the active struggle of working class and oppressed peoples - not from the Bidens, the Macrons and the Von Der Leyens. They represent a capitalist and imperialist system built on systemic oppression, injustice and exploitation.

Beginning with the Palestinian masses themselves, real struggle to defeat the racist capitalist Israeli State and win Palestinian freedom will only come from below. Their allies are in the millions of working class and poor people languishing under the dictatorships of oppressive, capitalist regimes.

And, yes, a potential ally is the Israeli working class whose leaders have created a cycle of violence through their ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

It is from below that the impetus will come to kick imperialism out of the middle east and end the rule of all the oppressive capitalist regimes.

The working class and poor masses will be the force that can build a new, democratic socialist Middle East based on public ownership of its wealth and resources and the rule of working people. Such a Middle East would be based on equality, peace and cooperation where the national rights of both Palestinians and Israelis can be met.