Letters: Echoes of Sarajevo, yet we are supposedly the ones who are ‘out of step'

Irish Independent

2 days ago

The telegram referred to the Genocide Convention, set out the criteria for defining genocide and cited the 'constant and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire' of Sarajevo by Rado­van Karadzic's Yugoslav People's Army, 'which have taken a heavy toll among the civilian population'.
It added that 'minority groups are also being harassed and subjected to pressure in an attempt to force them to leave' as evidence that genocide was being committed.
In 2005, the US Congress passed a resolution declaring that 'the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide'.
Over the last two years in Gaza, there has been continual and indiscriminate shelling and gunfire, which has taken a heavy toll among the civilian population.
Tens of thousands of innocent people, including 17,000 children, have been killed. Almost two million Palestinians have been displaced.
Israel has engaged in collective punishment of a captive civilian population, using starvation as a method of war and ethnic cleansing on a huge scale. It is genocide.
There are many similarities between what happened in Sarajevo and what is happening in Gaza.
Yet the US ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, recently said Ireland is 'much out of step' with America on Israel and Palestine.
It is the US government that is much out of step with any objective sense of morality.
Are there any two words in the English language hollower than 'never again'?
Or maybe the term does not apply if the perpetrators are Israeli, in which case it is meaningless.
The people of Palestine are not some kind of sub-human dark matter to be left to a psychopathic regime to erase and displace.
They are human beings who deserve the full protection of international and human rights law.
'The West' should hang its head in shame.
Rob Sadlier, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16
Western powers are either complicit, or apathetic to sickening Gaza atrocities
Many of us thought the genocidal situation in Gaza could not get much worse.
On July 25, I listened to Professor Nick Maynard speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on his latest experiences working as a surgeon in Gaza.
Even the word 'genocide', or any words, fail to adequately describe the barbarism being inflicted by Israel and its supportive allies on the Palestinian people.
Prof Maynard's first-hand eyewitness accounts cannot be ignored.
The deliberate starvation of children and adults while thousands of truckloads of food are being prevented from crossing the border into Gaza, combined with bombing, shooting and destruction of all vital life-saving facilities, amount to crimes against humanity.
Yet the so-called international community, including the Irish Government, continues to fail to act to end these atrocities.
Many have been actively support­ing this genocide by providing weapons and other military, financial and political support to Israel.
The French government belatedly promising to recognise the state of Palestine, the Irish Government still failing to enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the failure of the UN, EU, US and others to effectively sanction Israel are just some examples of double standards, or no standards at all.
Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick
It's the Israeli forces who are the main perpetrators of 'terror' in horrific war
Spokespersons for Israel's government excuse the actions in Gaza as a 'war' on terrorism.
The only terror seen in Gaza is that inflicted on unarmed civilians by the Israel Defence Forces – on children in particular.
It's time for the world to speak the truth in relation to Israeli activities in Gaza.
Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork
Cork fans could take a leaf out of Geneva of Ulster's book on modest mourning
Frank Coughlan's lament on Cork's loss in the All-Ireland final deserves sympathy and perhaps a cold compress, but I must gently remind him that some of us are not inclined to such theatrical mourning ('A Tipp of the hat, as a proud Cork man is put in his place', Irish Independent, July 25).
Here in Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – if anyone's asking – we go about our GAA heartbreaks, triumphs and theological responsibilities with the quiet assurance of a place that knows its worth.
We've had more than our share of heartbreaks, but prefer to carry them with a degree of decorum.
We're less the Venice of the North and more the Geneva of Ulster: small, significant and quietly influential.
Even in defeat, modesty can be its own kind of statement.
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh
'Nothing to see here' is US government response, so what's in the Epstein files?
While campaigning for the US presidency last year, Donald Trump promised to release all files about the well-connected sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump's MAGA supporters have since grown frustrated with the administration's handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured Epstein 'client list'.
In a memo earlier this month, the US Justice Department and FBI said there was no such list.
Riddle me this: How is it that Trump and his Republican coll­eagues appear to be blocking the release of these files when there is supposedly no list?
John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Kudos to Ringrose for the honesty concerning his health after Lions pick
I commend Garry Ringrose. Having been selected for the British and Irish Lions for the second test, he opted out of the team for the sake of his health and success of his fellow players.
Having been team doctor to Ulster, Ireland and Barbarians rugby union over many years, I can assure you this would never have happened in the amateur and early professional era, as players would try to pull the wool over the team doctor's eyes to get their feet on the pitch. His decision shows honesty.
Well done, Garry, and hopefully you will be fit for the final test game.