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YEARS AFTER THE Ryan, Ferns, Murphy and Cloyne Reports, the sanctity of the confession box is still an issue when it comes to keeping children safe.
Ryan, Ferns, Murphy and Clonye documented how children were forced into industrial schools, starved and abused. When they tried to complain no one listened. Sexual abuse against children wasn’t seen as a crime. It was considered a ‘moral failing’ on the part of the perpetrator.
Offences against children were hidden from the authorities. Perpetrators were knowingly relocated to other parts of the country, in fact, even other parts of the world, where they continued their campaign of abuse against children.
Promises were made
Organisations throughout Ireland, including the Catholic Church, for years grappled with the fallout and shame from these reports. Promises were made. Never again would we let children down. Never again would institutions put their own interests before a child. Never again would any excuses be made.
The government introduced new laws in response. The Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 made it a criminal offence for a person not to report any information relating to a sexual offence committed against a child.
The Children First Act 2015 placed a statutory duty on mandated persons to report suspicions, knowledge or a risk of a child being abused to the Child and Family Agency (Tusla).
There is no doubt that this legislation imposes new demands on organisations and people in contact with children. However if history has taught us anything it is that these duties are absolutely necessary and must be taken seriously. The child’s right to be protected from all forms of abuse and neglect is paramount. Or is it?
The confession box
The Catholic Church has invested considerable resources to improve its own child protection practices over the years and that’s very welcome. However, the national media recently spotlighted that the Catholic Bishops’ policy and standards for safeguarding children advises priests to ignore Children First in the confession box and that is concerning.
It clearly exposes priests to criminal prosecution down the line as the sanctity of the confession box is not a defence any judge is likely to accept. But somehow Canon law is superior? Somehow Children First doesn’t apply in the confession box?
Some might even argue that the right to practice one’s religion trumps the rights of the child. That’s simply not the case. The right to practice your religion is not absolute. The right of a child to be protected must always be paramount. There can be no exceptions for anyone.
What can be done?
This week I’ve had people contacting me asking me what can be done. Apart from directly appealing to the Catholic Church to explain their position, there is nothing that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone TD can do.
Tusla can ask an organisation to submit its Safeguarding Statement to the Agency, and it fails to do so, Tusla can include the organisation on its non-compliance register. But what happens if advice or guidance is in contravention of Children First? How does Tusla address this?
When the Children First Bill was going through the Oireachtas, the Children’s Rights Alliance, the ISPCC, Barnardos and many others, called for Tusla to be given powers to sanction organisations that failed to comply with Children First. However, we were told it wasn’t needed.
We were told that the government could withdraw funding from an organisation for violating the Children First Act. But what happens if it’s a private organisation with no reliance on government? What happens if that organisation actively advises its members to ignore rules that protect children? What then?
I understand the difficulties that the Church is facing in implementing this law. I really do. In fact, many providers are struggling in different ways to implement Children First. But we cannot stand back as a country and ignore the law. We have a moral duty to protect children.
Survivors are angry
I’m calling on government to urgently address this situation by amending the Children First Act 2015 to give Tusla more powers including the capacity to impose civil penalties for non-compliance by organisations and bodies.
Working out the details for this may be difficult but there are plenty of examples to draw from. Look at the Health and Safety Authority and the powers that it has. Surely we can come up with some solution.
Survivors of Ryan, Ferns, Murphy and Cloyne are angry. They have bravely worked hard to expose what happened to them and to make other children safe. We all have to play our part.
Tanya Ward is Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance.
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This isn’t entirely true, in 2000 Ehud Barak decided it was time to give the Palestinians what they wanted and, in a peace deal negotiated through Bill Clinton in Camp David with Yasser Arafat they were offered almost everything they wanted, including billions in reparations. Arafat kept asking for more. Clinton would later say he wanted a small strip of land under the Temple mount, about 50 feet long, that for strategic reasons simply couldn’t be allowed. He finally had an excuse, marched out and the second Intifada began. Some years later they were offered much the same deal again and refused it again. They want Israel gone, as per their charter.
Even as this is been written more mortars and missiles are being fired from Gaza into Israel, they’re just lobbed in randomly and some landed in a kindergarten a few days ago. No other nation on Earth are expected to live under a barrage like this, if they retaliate they accused of being racists, overreacting.
@Boyne Sharky: No one argues that what some in Gaza are doing is wrong. But how does that excuse Israeli killing as many as it does. Criticising how Israel goes about, is not an endorsement of some of the vicious crazies on the other side.
@David Hickey: Let’s be clear, this isn’t some, this is the policy of Hamas the elected ruling body of Gaza. They divert billions in funds from their own people to purchase weapons, aimed at Israel of course. They use their own people as cannon fodder in the hope they’ll be killed by Israeli fire, they fire rockets, missiles and mortars into Israel by the thousands and claim they’re being attacked when Israel retaliate.
Are there zealots on the Israeli side? Absolutely, having said that all Israeli’s withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas clearly state in their charter and in TV interviews they want all of Israel and preferably every Jew in it dead. That’s a big difference, especially when it’s a policy.
@Boyne Sharky: Some valid facts, but they don’t help to paint a true picture until they are set amidst all of the other pieces of the jigsaw. Collective punishment of ordinary Palestinian civilians as retaliation for others daring to confront Goliath is not only immoral but also a War Crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. There is no obvious solution to Palestine that would leave Israel intact (let alone continue to grow beyond its borders) so perhaps its time serious efforts were focused on dismantling and redefining it. In the meantime Israel continues to poison relationships in the region and provides an arguable excuse for headbangers to wage terrorist campaigns elsewhere.
@Boyne Sharky: there is also the issue of EU money going to Palestinian terrorist families convicted of murder.
@Boyne Sharky: Yasser Arafat is dead a long time but you are true to Hasbara Policy by blaming dead people and what they were purported to have done for today’s genocide in Palestine. Hamas is the ideal scapegoat for Zionist because all they have to do is keep prodding it with murder of innocent civilians until it responds and then even more people can be killed with ‘justification’. When you steal land for illegal settlements and throw the refugees into camps like Gaza you should not expect them to come up with a Green Party. They will come up with Hamas who promise to resist. We need to recognize Palestine now and pressure the Zionist State into accepting that they can’t take it all..
@Boyne Sharky: billions in funds? Have you ever been to Gaza? It’s one big refugee camp. The total yearly budget for the Gaza government is about 500 million – that’s for an area with a population of 2 million. Not sure how they can divert ‘billions’ from that. Also, the borders are more or less closed, so even if Hamas were to purchase billions worth of weapons there is no way to get them into the territory.
It is true that there have been a few crappy rockets that have been fired at Israel, and they have been as effective as fireworks. No Israeli citizen has been hurt.
@ウィリアム はげ: Here’s a link to a pro Palestinian blog , even they admit death’s caused by rocket attacks .
I don’t condone Israeli land grabs or brutality meted out by a stronger military , but I believe if the power was reversed , not one Israeli would be left alive in Israel .
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/rocket-deaths-israel/
@Boyne Sharky: Hi Boyne. You seem to think Israel wants peace and the Palestinians don’t. But the actual evidence is to the contrary. Israel never offered either Arafat or Abbas anything other than Bantustans separated from each other by Israeli security roads servicing its East Bank settlements, and the permanent Israeli occupation of the Jordan Valley.
If Israel actual wanted peace, it wouldn’t be continuing its relentless, provocative, and brutal seizure of the homes and farmland of the non-Jewish residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Why doesn’t Israel agree to cease this criminal policy as a sign of its bona fides. It won’t because its actions are evidence of the denial of the right of Palestinians to live as free people in the West Bank. The evidence is that Israel is playing a long game, and the objective is the land without its non-Jewish population.
And as a point of information: people who have no effective legal recourse to vindicate their property and personal rights, or their ghettoization, are perfectly entitled under international law to use force against their dispossessors. I refer you to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and the partisan resistance against the policy of « living space » pursued by the Nazis (which targeted settlers as well as the German military).
@Denis McClean: good man Denis, call out HAZZIBABA where ever you see it, those sneaky Jews and their sneaky ways!
@David Hickey: I have sympathy for the Palestinian cause but Hamas is their real enemy. They are stirring it up for the benefit of Iran . If we allowed people to launch rockets at London with impunity how long before the RAF would drop bombs on Dublin
@Boyne Sharky: Ha Ha Hasbara
@Peter O’Muiri: Arafat was offered 93% of the West Bank not including land swaps, East Jerusalem as its capital including control of the old city and its holy sights. The offer also included a right of return to Israel proper for a certain number of palestinian “refugees” and billions in reparations for the rest. The deal fell through because Arafat wouldn’t accept Jewish sovereignty over a tiny strip of land under the wailing wall (Judaisms holiest site). Every prominent person involved blamed Arafat for the failure to accept that deal including Clinton and prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia (no friend of Israel) who said his failure to accept it amounted to a crime on the palestinian people. In order to win back international support Arafat colluded with Hamas to carry out a wave of suicide attacks on Israeli civilians hoping that Israel would retaliate with force as it always turning the world against Israel. Arafat’s own wife, PA officials and high profile Hamas defectors like Mosab Hassan Yousef (the son of Hamas founder) have verified that this was Arafat’s intention all along. This is why most surrounding Arab countries have pretty much given up supporting the Palestinians.
@ウィリアム はげ: No I’ve never been to Gaza, then there’s a lot of places I’ve never been to, and don’t have to, in order to know I don’t want to, so the point is meaningless. With regard to the budget, that does not include international aid.
On October 1, 1993, the international donor community met in Washington and pledged to provide approximately $2.4 billion to the Palestinians over the course of the next five years.
Between 1993 and 1997 Donors’ pledges continued to increase regularly (their value had risen to approximately $3.4 billion as of the end of October 1997).
After 1997 there was increased growth and an expansion of the West Bank and Gaza economy. After the signing of the Wye River Memorandum, a new donors’ conference was convened, and over $2 billion was pledged to the PNA for 1999–2003.
The World Bank estimated that in 2008 PNA would need $1.2 billion in recurrent budget support, in addition to $300 million in development aid.
In December 2007, during the Paris Donor Conference, which followed the Annapolis Conference, the international community pledged over $7.7 billion for 2008–2010 in support of the Palestinian Reform and Development Program (PRDP).
Following the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, an international conference took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where donors pledged almost $4.5 billion for the resonstruction of Gaza.
The lion’s share of the aid comes from the European Union and the United States. According to estimates made by the World Bank The Palestinian Authority received $525 million of international aid in the first half of 2010, $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2008.
In March 2011, there were threats to cut off aid for the PA if it continued to move forward on a unity government with Hamas, unless Hamas formally renounced violence, recognized Israel, and accepted previous Israel-Palestinian agreements. Azzam Ahmed, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded by stating that the PA was willing to give up financial aid in order to achieve unity, “Palestinians need American money, but if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid.”
An increasing number of the rockets, missiles and mortars are made in Iran and, naturally, these come at a price, as do the tunnels to smuggle them in from Egypt and Israel. One tunnel found recently was concrete reinforced, ran from Gaza, into Egypt before finally surfacing in Israel, and not for the tourism.
@Damon16: Zionist revisionism and wishful thinking. Deal with the reality of the actual murder rates, ethnic cleansing and genocide and tell me how Israel plans to survive having alienated humanity.
@Peter O’Muiri: What you or I think is largely irrelevant in this, the evidence on the other hand proves Israel has offered Arafat, Abbas and Hamas what they claimed to want. They rejected it and chose war instead.
No nation chooses to live under a missile defence shield, with literally thousands of missiles, rockets and mortars raining down, peace is preferable. The evidence is clear that while Hamas maintains a pretence of certain demands, the reality is when these were offered to them they rejected them, they want the death of every Jew and Israel in it’s entirety. They make no secret of this in Gaza in their own media and on their TV, but it’s not popular to report it in the West. They manipulate and attack to provoke a response, even to the point of having their own children slaughtered – as long as it’s captured on camera. They’ve stored missiles and munitions in schools, the same schools where they teach young children that Jews are apes, one said, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?” This was approved and paid for by the UN.
Are there lunatics on both sides? Absolutely. What I’ve described is just a small fraction of the situation in that part of the world, it would be almost impossible for there not to be lunatics on both sides of the divide given that. Israel have made it clear they will not fire if Hamas don’t, they have no wish to do so, however Hamas do what they always do and provoke Israel. Inevitably sooner or later Israel will retaliate and Hamas will claim to be the poor underdog, peacefully protesting, bullied by the more powerful Israel. And it’ll all be caught on camera.
@Denis McClean:
“Real Apartheid” alright: https://mobile.twitter.com/AviMayer/status/1001906996193488896
@David Hickey: how many juden must perish until you are content?
@Kieran Magennis: Goliath?? Israel is a TINY country of 8 million people. Israel is Ireland, of the past.
The Israelis are intent on exterminating the Palestinian people and taking their land and they have the backing of the US in this project. The EU, and Ireland in particular, could intervene and force real peace talks. The world has been watching this slow genocide for decades now and doing nothing. Enough!
@Willie Penwright:
Could you explain then how the Palestinian population which in 1948 was 1.4 million worldwide has grown 8 fold in the interim and is expected to outnumber the Israeli population by 2020 wen it reaches 7.2 million?
154,000 Palestinians remained in the newly-created state of Israel in 1948, and today they number 1.36 million.
Just saying.
@Jack McGready: the Palestinians do not want a peace deal. They are still intent in wiping Israel off the face of the earth. They are at war. Israel has no choice but to defend itself against its enemies. War is brutal. Every war in the world can be stopped except this one. The Palestinians are comfortable sacrificing their people and being victims of their own stubbornness for ever. It’s time to stop sympathising with such stupidity and cruelty towards their own people. Stop supporting them and this stupid war will end.
@Willie Penwright: Reasoning for this comment positioned second? It’s got more likes than the “it’s ok to murder palastinians” comment occupying first.
@Jack McGready: Is that why the Israelis are killing so many Palestinians? So that their numbers never exceed the number of Israelis?
@m flynsk: “The Palestinians are comfortable sacrificing their people and being victims of their own stubbornness for ever. It’s time to stop sympathising with such stupidity and cruelty towards their own people. Stop supporting them and this stupid war will end”.
Stop supporting the Palestinians and give the Israelis carte blanche to exterminate them? No! Also, stupidity and stubborness? The Israelis have stolen their land and massacred their people. I think it’s probably more than stupidity and stubborness.
@Willie Penwright: great to see the author refer to the “1967 borders”…. ie the 1949 armistice lines which are not borders nor were they ever borders of any kind… Not even county borders.
So apart from not being borders and being 19 years out, it’s a pretty good description of 1967 borders lol
@Willie Penwright: misinformed, stupid or liar??
Watch. Listen. Learn.
Well written piece. I agree with it. I don’t understand why the Irish Govt is afraid to recognise the state of Palestine.
It’s the first step in negotiating a two-state solution…
@Sean Geeney:
Why not recognise the state of Nortern Ireland while they’re at it?
@Jack McGready: and Taiwan
@Jack McGready: We did in 1998 when we removed articles two and three.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_2_and_3_of_the_Constitution_of_Ireland
@Oliver Moran: nothing in the constitution recognises Northern Ireland.
All we did was remove our claim to it. Get it right
@Jack McGready: Northern Ireland isn’t a state. It’s in a state (pun intended).
@Sean Geeney: because Ireland, like most in the West, is a hoor of a nation in a political sense and would never risk losing the American dollar.
Typical nonsense piece from a leftie with zero understanding of the history of the region or the current facts on the ground. Calls for Frances Black’s bill to be enacted despite the fact that it would be in breach of EU law tells you just how biased he is. Yesterday almost 100 rockets were fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza into Israel hitting among other things a Kindergarten. Where is his condemnation of that? The Arabs who claim to be Palestinians have NEVER agreed to any peace proposal put forward by the International Community, the Israelis have said yes on every occasion. It is time for the EU to be sidestepped, they have shown in their words and actions they can never be honest brokers especially with virulently anti-Semitic countries like Ireland and Sweden in their midst.
@Richard Keogh: Frances Black is a woman. Perhaps you should do your homework before you start commenting on serious matters on a public forum.
@VMKilshaw:
Grammar not your forte VMKilshaw?
The ‘he’ being referred to is the author.
@Richard Keogh: i’m irish living in sweden.. Never cease to be amazed at the anti israel bias of the irish left.. Most of whom are clueless about the history of the state of Israel and the resilience of the israeli people.. Here in sweden.. Anti semitisim, is a much more recent problem and does not originate with the native swedish people… No suprise that the left and islam make such good bedfellows… Even if the latter look at the former as useful idiots.
@Raymond Power: The Anti-Antisemitism card comes out of the deck. You do know that Palestinians are a Semitic People, which makes Zionist Israel the most Antisemitic State since the Third Reich. It’s also an Apartheid Theocracy, which is what you get when you legislate for one religion and/or one ethnic group. Cop on.
@Richard Keogh: I would not put forward any opinion about the conflict as I don’t feel I know the full history enough but I have to agree with you about your point about honest brokers.
The actions of the Lord Mayor and others was so counterproductive if they intended to actually help the situation at all as they have clearly indicated the ‘side’ they are on, poisoning the well so to speak.
Like the idiots who thought they’d sort out Syria we seemed to have given ourselves an over inflated and self righteous sense of our position in the world that has no bearing in reality.
@Denis McClean: Oh my god would you listen to this rubbish! “Anti-Semitic includes Arabs” get out of it, doesn’t matter what the language family is, it is accepted worldwide as the viewpoint of discriminating against the Jewish people.
Don’t waste everyone’s time with little vocabular anomalies you’ve discovered and then think it wins you an argument.
@Irish “Design”: Semitic
sɪˈmɪtɪk/Submit
adjective
1.
relating to or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.
2.
relating to the peoples who speak Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.
@Denis McClean: Please spare us. Prefixes can change the meaning of words. English 101.
Back to school Denis.
You can argue semantics all you like – but the conflating of criticism of the state of Israel with anti Jewishness (to avoid any ambiguity) is tiresome and lazy. I have nothing against Jewish people, indeed some of them are Israel’s most vociferous critics, however the constant illegal expansion of its borders through ‘settlements’ is going to provoke a reaction. If you woke up tomorrow and found your neighbour has moved the garden wall 5 feet into your garden and had shown disregard for any laws that recolonised your ownership of the garden, how would you react?
The Israeli government are not and never have been interested in peace with their neighbours. They want war, they crave war, greed and avarice drive them.
Israel to Palestine is the same as Germany was to the Jews of Europe.
@Dave Doyle: totally agree.
@Dave Doyle: Israel to Palestine is the same as Britain was to Ireland.
I’m surprised that so many Irish support Israel, we seem to have forgotten our own history when we were in a similar situation.
@Dave Doyle:
Well done.
An early contender for the Godwin Award there Dave.
@Jack McGready: No mention of Hitler or Nazis. So Godwin’s law doesn’t apply. But only a mere troll like you with nothing meaningful to add could come out with that drivel.
@Dave Doyle: Except for signing those peace deals with Egypt and Jordan (even though those countries were the aggressors ) and accepting every serious peace deal that has been put on the table and the fact that in several surrounding Arab countries have tried to destroy them several times before and Iranian politicians and their proxies openly brag about how they can’t wait to “wipe them off the map”. Yeah not peace loving people it seems.
@Dave Doyle: Wow Dave, early contender for the case made that Godwin’s law doesn’t apply!
What a load of semantic rubbish lol
Disgusting comment by the way. 6 times Israel has done exactly what people like you have asked it to do and 6 times they’ve gotten nothing but terrorism (South Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, West Bank x2, Sinai).
I know for sure I wouldn’t be trying for a 7th time, so fair play to Israel, you can only try to make peace with a bully so many times.
@Dave Doyle: or like you are to murdering innocent baby’s !!!
These nice, cuddly Palestinian leaders who are keen for a peace deal only exist in the minds of western leftists. In reality, they use their tightly controlled media and TV to engage in pretty vicious anti-Jewish incitement. You’ll see kids reading poems praising Hitler, Holocaust denial, claims that the Jews (not Israel, the Jews) murdered Arafat. We can recognize all we want. It doesn’t change the reality that both Mahmoud Abbas (who presents a nice, moderate image in the west and hopes that no-one quotes his speeches in Arabic) and Hamas want to destroy Israel, not negotiate with it.
@Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh: If people got a taste of what it is like to try and live under Zionist Occupation, I think more and more people would be singing Hitler’s praises but as it is, Palestinians do not sing Hitlers praises because their education system, like all of their previous infrastructure is in tatters and they probably never heard of the lad. You should lose that name Dovid.
@Denis McClean: If you choose to ignore the way Palestinian children are being raised to hate , you should change your name to , Deny .
https://youtu.be/1sDZlo_hllI
@Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh: of course the Palestinians want to destroy Israel…and how could you blame them. And it’s not just the Palestinians either. A lot of people across the world would like to see it with the Neverending ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
No surprise,we already have the usual hasbara trolls posting in support of Israel.
Where were they as the Israeli army snipers were shooting unarmed protesters
at the Gaza border ?
@Johnny Merren:
Its HAZZIBABA I tells ya! HAZZIBABA!!!
They control the internet those pesky Jews!
HAZZIBABA all day
The situation in Gaza is very like a prison riot. The inmates (who have been interned, unjustly some say) every so often react to this imprisonment and set about rioting in an almost self destruction manor. The Prison Guards (here played by the Israeli armed forces) reacts to this riot with equally callous disregard for the inmates. A tragedy I’m sure we can all agree. The solution? I’m afraid I don’t have one. Sad.
@Martin: Just remember that Egypt has a much tighter blockade on its border with Gaza even though they’ve never been attacked by Gazan militants. The Israelis supply everything going into Gaza even while Gazan militants are bombarding Israel.
@Martin: There will be no peace in Gaza until Hamas are kicked out and Fatah re-establish control. The blockade won’t be lifted until Gaza is de-militarized. Its a shame because with peace and a proper government Gaza could be a nice place, its on the Mediterranean coast and the like, lots of potential. It’s a pity because when Israel withdrew from the Gaza the palestinians could have proved that it was possible to build a functional palestinian state in peaceful co-existence with Israel. If that had of been the case a two state solution would have been inevitable
Life without a solution between Israel and the Palestinians
has been Israel’s consistent policy to date
so they can incrementally continue stealing Palestinian land.
Israeli history will confirm this is so.
Caithfear an t-ambasadóir a dhíbirt as Éirinn láithreach bonn
@Micheál:
And you called for Russia’s ambassador to be expelled? France’s for bombing Mali & Mauritania? US for bombing Syria? Britain’s for bombing Libya?
I doubt it.
Israel is held to a higher standard – not only when compared to it’s primitive neighbors – but also when compared to western countries.
@Irish “Design”: Israel is held to a higher standard ???
for your information
Eran Efrati, former Israeli combat soldier turned anti-occupation activist and investigative researcher.
He recently interviewed several Israeli soldiers who participated in the Shejaiya massacre in Gaza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0QbdjAYcc
Former Israeli soldier speaks out about IDF abuse in Gaza
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/9/12/part_2_former_israeli_soldier_eran
Just finished reading another article where israel murdered more people under the guise of fighting terror. If only we had of listened during the 2 world wars. We wouldn’t have these animals murdering with impunity.
@Steven Fitzpatrick: Listened to who during the two world wars?
@Steven Fitzpatrick: I think you need to explain that comment.
@techman: it’s no way to treat people. How/Why did Israel become so? Would it exist if their people were treated the way they were.
@Damon16: I think he means Hitler!
The first move is for the palestinians to recognise the state of Israel rather than stating their intention to “wipe them off the map”
In the late 40s and 50s it was the ideal state according to republicans. An independent state and imposing Hebrew on the population. How things have changed.
Patrick your diagnosis of the problem is wrong. Palestinians have repeatedly been offer a chance and also refuse the offer. Hamas wants to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Their charter is quite explicit. Why would any nation negotiate with people who want to wipe them out? Also Patrick what will be the borders of this Palestinian state? The green line is a ceasefire line not a border. The future borders were to be the subject of negotiations.
EU ‘blackout’ sanctions on all goods & services for 40 yrs -unless change
There is one truth here. Every time a two state solution has been offered the Arabs have rejected it.
If the Arabs lay down their arms there will be peace.
If the Israelis lays down their arms there will be a second holocaust.
Look it will all be grand when Jesus turns up and congratulates His chosen people, right ?
Talk about living in an alternate universe. The days of Europe drawing borders in the Middle East are long gone and won’t be coming back anytime soon.
Let’s get this straight, it’s the Jews that have been targeted by Hamas at every single turn. They simply do not want peace and that needs to change before we all start telling Israel what they should be doing. Every single time there is a chance of a meaningful peace process Hamas or one of its cohorts goes and sabotages it. It’s not a peaceful outcome that the Arab world wants, it’s an end to Israel and the deaths of all Jews. Until that is fully acknowledged by the outside world all this talk of Israel stopping killing terrorists who want to kill them is pure nonsense.
I beg to differ with your contention that “The European Union prides itself on democracy, peace-making and freedom of the press inside its borders”. The EU pontificates on democracy, peace-making and freedom of the press inside its borders but principles are not absolute but negotiable for the sake of political expediency. For example, in France it is illegal to advocate BDS, probably because France has the largest Jewish community in the world, outside of Israel and US, so it is politically expedient not to upset this voter base.
Regarding Ireland’s likelihood to formally recognise Palestine, Minister Coveney’s recent statement on this issue is that, while it is included as a plan/aspiration of Fine Gael’s Programme for Government, the precise intention is to recognise Palestine as part of or following the conclusion of peace negotiations. So Ireland has no intention of being a catalyst, rather just a follower.
On the bill proposed by Senator Frances Black, which should not be contentious as it is merely the implementation of international law, given Fine Gael’s history of weaseling out of taking any moral stand on the continued oppression and killing of Palestinians, beyond mild mannered expressions of “condemnation”, it is highly likely that Fine Gael will oppose the bill. Furthermore, it is likely that Fianna Fail will oppose the bill. Michael Martin is to be highly commended for his moral stance, and the political risk that he took, on the 8th amendment referendum. It will be rather disappointing that his morality apparently does not extend to the morally repugnant actions of Israel in Palestine.
have your say