Council to write to Irish Government proposing UN peacekeepers to Gaza to ensure food distribution

Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Health and Communities committee held a minute of “silence and reflection to remember the men, women and children [in Palestine] who have perished at the hands of the Israeli Government and its army over many decades and particularly now”.

The proposal was made by Cllr Sandra Duffy (Sinn Féin) and seconded by Cllr Paul Boggs (Sinn Féin).

Introducing the proposal, Cllr Pat Murphy (Sinn Féin) highlighted that Thursday marked the 77th anniversary of The Nakba.

“[This was] the catastrophic forced displacement of almost 750,000 Palestinian citizens from their homes. Essentially ethnically cleansed by a Zionist militia in order to establish the State of Israel, The Nakba was not a singular event and signalled the beginning of decades of brutality, apartheid, repression,” he said.

“Palestinian citizens have been denied their fundamental human rights and their dignity for generations and this has culminated in the genocide that we see daily unfolding before our eyes.

“Yes, this genocide that we see daily unfolding before our eyes is being televised. Just today, almost 100 Palestinians have died as the missiles continue to rain down from the skies.

“Of course the Israeli perpetrators of this brutal slaughter must at some stage in the future be held to account but today, I think it is appropriate that we acknowledge and bear witness to the inhumanity that has been perpetrated on the citizens of Palestine by the Israeli Government and its army,” said Cllr Murphy.

Later the Health and Communities committee passed without opposition a motion brought by People Before Profit councillor

Shaun Harkin condemning “Israel's barbaric blockade of Gaza and continuing genocide against the Palestinian people”.

It continued: “Council condemns Israel's intentional starvation of Gaza's more than 2 million people in its attempt to kill as much of the population as possible and force them to leave their homes.

“Council agrees with the urgent call made by the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and will write to the Irish government calling on it to propose to the UN General Assembly the immediate sending of UN peacekeepers to Gaza to ensure the distribution of food and all means of sustaining life."

Speaking to his motion, Cllr Harkin also highlighted the 77th anniversary of The Nakba - the “forced removal of almost one million Plaestinians in 1948”.

“Unfortunately The Nakba isn’t a single event. It is a continuing event because Israel’s project is to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank,” he said.

“What we are seeing today, what we are witnessing today is The Nakba and we have an emergency situation in which, as everybody knows, more than 50,000 people [have been] slaughtered, tens of thousands of children slaughtered but now, in addition to the military attack that Israel is conducting, there is a real threat of starvation.

“I am sure people heard this week the World Health Organisation issued its warning about the lack of food and how that is impacting people, particularly children in Gaza.

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“It is obviously harrowing; it is obviously disgusting. I think the world has demanded over and over again that this be stopped. It hasn’t.

“I think we should commemorate The Nakba but we need to continue to look for every action possible to do what we can to stop it,” said Cllr Harkin.

His motion was seconded by Cllr Catherine McDaid (SDLP) who said “we all know we are in a genocide here”.

“There are no words to describe it anymore and starving people on purpose. It is not a famine. It is starvation. It is just unspeakable,” she added.