Report from IPSC Public Meeting with Caoimhe Butterly and Derek Graham from the Free Gaza Movement

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday October 20, 2009 23:43 by Kev - IPSC (pers cap) info at ipsc dot ie

On Tuesday 20th October the Dublin Branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) hosted a meeting attended by about 40 people, featuring Caoimhe Butterly and Derek Graham, two well known activists with the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) who have been to Gaza many times. The meeting was chaired by Freda Hughes, Acting Chairperson of the IPSC and member of the Free Gaza ‘ground team’ in Ireland.

L-R: Caoimhe Butterly, Freda Hughes and Derek Graham

First to speak was Caoimhe Butterly who outlined the Free Gaza movement’s plan to send a flotilla of siege-breaking aid boats to the Gaza Strip in December. The tiny Palestinian coastal strip of Gaza has been under a brutal medieval-style siege imposed by Israel since 2006, and it is home to, in the words of a recent Red Cross report, “1.5 million people who are trapped in despair”.

One boat of this flotilla will be an Irish boat (registered in Ireland, sailing under an Irish flag) that will leave from Ireland and will meet up with the other international boats in Cyprus. The main focus of this voyage will be to bring in medical aid and building supplies such as concrete (banned by the Israeli government).

Derek Graham then explained that the Free Gaza Movement was trying to build as much support for this trip as possible, both in Ireland and internationally – and not just material and financial support, but moral and activist support. In particular, Derek said that the FGM and the IPSC would be cooperating with regard to awareness raising when the flotilla was en route to Gaza.

Derek stressed that in order for the voyage (and future voyages) to be successful that the support of ordinary people was needed – support such as phoning media outlets and demanding the story be covered, phoning the Israeli embassy and demanding that the boats be allowed safe passages, and for Irish people in particular – who are one of the most widely dispersed people on the planet – to engage with friends and relations all over the world and get them to phone Israeli embassies in their respective countries.

Caoimhe then talked about the terrible conditions in Gaza in the wake of Israel’s winter offensive, but highlighted the proud nature of the people that live there, and that their continuing struggle showed that they were survivors and heroes of the highest magnitude. She also stressed that while aid was important, political action was of more importance. She said: “Whatever we can do with regard to bringing in supplies, we are merely breaching the siege. We are not ending it. Ending it will require much more. The terrible conditions for the people are merely a symptom of the siege”.

Freda Hughes added that further to this, the siege was symptom of the occupation, and the occupation was in turn a symptom of Zionism, the colonial ideology of the Israeli State.

She elaborated that “in the wake of the publication of the Goldstone Report - which now leaves no doubt as to the criminal nature of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza - that words, no matter how strong, were no longer enough. The Irish government must use all its diplomatic sway to bring pressure to bear on Israel to end the siege of Gaza and to ensure that Palestinians are guaranteed their full human, civil, political and national rights. An example of a concrete step the Irish government could take would be to use its influence in the EU to push for the suspension of Israel from the Euro-Med agreement (of which it is in breach of Article 2)”.

If you are interested in getting involved in the Free Gaza Movement of the IPSC, please see http://www.freegaza.org or contact info@ipsc.ie. The IPSC is a broad-based non-party political organisation that campaigns for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people through political lobbying work and engagement with all levels of Irish civil society.

The IPSC Dublin Branch would like to thank all those who attended the meeting, and those who helped poster for it and spread the word.

Derek Graham