News is frightening, not only because bloodshed and misery is more newsworthy than more uplifting stories, but because the global pandemic is having a long term effect on our attitudes. For some it dampens down the emapthy response, for others it amplifies the feelings of hopelessness and despair.
The news from Gaza and Israel shows what happens when conflicts fester for decades without resolution.
The Israeli leadership has shown little interest in reaching an agreement with those people whose families lived in Palestine long before it was rebranded as Israel. Those who were evicted and forced off their land, such as the inhabitants of Ramallah are marking 70 years of the Nakba when their homes were destroyed and their land resettled illegaly by Israeli families.
Meanwhile in Ireland North and South the fudged peace deal seems to be holding despite plonking a border in the Irish Sea and the UK government agreeing to the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU as a consequence of Brexit and the 1922 Treaty. OK, threats have been made to Customs officers trying to carry out theirs jobs in the port of Larne and we have had the odd riot – nothing unusual about that sort of activity, police officers bearing the brunt of injuries and community representatives trying to calm things down
In 1971 and 1972 civilians were shot by British soldiers deployed to keep the peace in Ballymurphy and Derry. It has taken 50 years of campaining by the victims’ families to establish that the dead were not armed, but innocents brutally murdered. It is no excuse that the squadies were young and not used to policing, Compare that to the 139 Palestinians killed in the current outbreak of volence and the indiscriminate use of live rounds on civilians has to be condemned.
Talks about talks have to lead somewhere. In Ireland and in South Africa there were leaders who were prepared to listen, negotiate and compromise in order to reach peacefuls accords.
How much longer must the people in Israel wait for their leaders to work towards peaceful accommodations or even fudged peace deals?
odespinner 