Democrat Editorial: Please stop the slaughter

Ireland this week recognised Palestine as a State.

It was a long due recognition for a people who have suffered multiple pains since the Israeli State was declared in the aftermath of a UN resolution after WW2 and which was supposed to run in tandem with an initial two state solution including an Arab state.

Now, the tragedies that have unfolded since October 7, 2023 when Hamas slaughtered over 1,110 innocent Israelis, in a barbaric act that has been rightly and utterly condemned by all, have been atrocious.

The holding of Israeli hostages by Hamas is equally deplorable and cannot under any circumstances be justified as a bargaining tool, let alone from a humanitarian perspective.

In retaliation to this attack, the current Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu and its Defence Forces has responded by slaughtering, at a current estimate, some 36,000 Palestinians and not including over 80,000 injured.

And it is clearly evident that the response has escalated from a right to defend oneself to the wholescale barbarity that we are witnessing on a daily basis, including what has happened this week in Rafah.

In the quest to wipe out Hamas, it seems that Palestinian wives and children and the elderly have simply become acceptable “collateral damage” to the Israeli government.

It is a blinding retaliatory rage and rampage that appears unappeasable, despite the clear need for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said on Tuesday, the day Ireland formally its recognition as a State : “Recognition of Palestine is not the end of a process; it is the beginning. We are deeply committed to the pursuit of peace and support for Palestinian state-building.

Ireland has reaffirmed this commitment over many decades, through intensive diplomacy and our long-standing development cooperation programme.”

Symbolism like an Ambassador to Palestine and the flag flying at Leinster House are important, just as there have been similar declarations by Norway and Spain, but what really needs to happen is a STOP to this craziness in the first instance.

No amount of new slaughter will bring back a loved one.