It is utterly distressing to watch news reports of the war in Gaza and the West Bank.
Like so many others, the feelings of outrage coupled with powerlessness and sometimes despair are overwhelming as I watch footage of emaciated, starving children with distended stomachs and bones protruding.
They are being held by their despairing mothers crying out for some form of nutrition. Viewers are subjected to the barbarity of indiscriminate bombing, which destroys dwellings, hospitals, schools, shops, etc.
According to the Gaza Health Authority, over 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war to date.
It is estimated that half a million Palestinians are starving, even though we are reliably informed that hundreds of trucks laden with supplies are stationed just outside the Israeli border.
But they are obstructed from entering Gaza and the West Bank, though Israel, of course, denies this, claiming that there is a food supply getting through.
The statistics are supplied by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an organisation backed by the United Nations, which monitors hunger internationally.
It reports that over half a million Palestinians are facing famine conditions of starvation, destitution and death. And it emphasises that the crisis is entirely man-made.
Israel is weaponizing hunger as a military strategy, which is contrary to all international conventions on warfare.
The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said it was “a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing”.
The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Israel, as the occupying power, “has unequivocal obligations under international law – including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has authorised the ground invasion of Gaza city, which would forcibly displace over one million Palestinians.
This will have very serious consequences for many people who are sick and malnourished as they may not be able to evacuate. The barbarity can have a numbing effect, giving a kind of protective shield to isolate us from the horrors.
But we can’t escape the feeling that we should be doing something. It is heartening to see well-attended protest marches throughout the country in support of Palestine.
Our Government must be commended for its official recognition of the State of Palestine.
(Most experts agree that the ‘Two-State Solution’, which involves the creation of a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel, is the only viable proposal for peace in the area.) The U.S. has shamefully refused to recognise the State of Palestine.
A United Nations official, Francesca Albanese, had listed companies who were profiting from their investments in Israeli bonds and which, through other associated companies, were involved in the instruments of war.
Allianz, the biggest insurance company in the world, was on that list.
In fact, it was described as the principal institutional shareholder in Elbit Systems, one of the main suppliers of drones to the Israeli military – weapons used to kill men, women and children.
The Association of Catholic Priests has called for the Church in Ireland to divest from its main insurer. All church property and Catholic schools in Ireland are insured by Allianz.
The company is also one of the major sponsors for the GAA. This monopoly must be seriously challenged.
The Association of Catholic Priests (the ACP) of which I am a member, issued a statement ending with the words: ‘because the present sense of outrage in the Irish Catholic Church at what’s happening in Gaza will be increased exponentially by the revelation of the Irish Catholic Church’s connection with Allianz and Allianz’s connection with the state of Israel, we ask that the response of the Irish Catholic Church should be immediate and far-reaching in cutting our links with Allianz’.
Dr Michael Malone, of the Christians for Palestine organisation, has emphasised how effective such a boycott of companies like Allianz can be. He is also associated with a movement called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
He is emphatic that financial pressure, created by such movements, may ultimately force the Israeli government to cease the genocide.
I have no hesitation in calling on the Irish Church and the GAA to sever all links with Allianz, regardless of the cost, unless, of course, the company divests from Elbit Systems.
As I write, a peace proposal has just been announced by President Trump.
I’m somewhat sceptical as none of the warring parties (the Israeli Government or the Hamas terrorists) were party to the negotiations.
It demands a significant climbdown by Netanyahu, reversing as it does the attempt to force Palestinians in Gaza into exile and to agree to the withdrawal of Israeli Defence Forces from Gaza.
Recently we celebrated the great feast, of St. Francis of Assisi, an icon for peace and hope.
Francis, himself experienced the consequence of war and imprisonment.
It was during his time in captivity, confronted with the harshness of poverty and want, where he discovered the presence of God.
Contemplating on who is God and who am I, Francis embraced the radical message of the Gospel.
God loves us as we are, not for who we want to be, but for the unique gift each one of us are, in the sight of the one who created us.
This insight allowed Francis to enjoy an inner contentment and
spiritual awareness of God’s omnipresence, in the bits and pieces of his daily life.
It is in this context where he recorded his celebrated prayer:
“Lord make me an instrument of your peace.”
I pray in a turbulent world that peace will prevail, especially for the Palestinian people.
