Gerry Adams campaigning to improve the lives of the long suffering Palestinians

On Friday 5th December Gerry Adams president of the Catholic Sinn Fein party, tweeted his plans for a three day visit to the Middle East, including Palestine and Israel. He wrote on his blog that the purpose of his visit was to meet key players in the region and receive first hand information about the current conditions there. This appears to have caused concern to the Israeli government condemned by international human rights organizations around the world for their oppression of the Palestinian people. Adams was waiting to hear whether he would be granted access to the Gaza strip.

Gaza is home to 1.8 million people, 40km long and 10km wide, on the Mediterranean Sea and bordering Israel and Egypt. It is largely sealed off and often referred to as the “world’s largest open air prison” with strict border controls. Locals suffer endless imposed shortages of essentials such as food, water, medicine and building materials (which Israel tries but fails to hide) and for many years Gaza has relied on a series of secret tunnels to bring in supplies from the outside.

Adams was intending to take up an invitation received from UNWRA, the United Nations agency which provides aid to the Palestinian people and to visit Gaza. In addition a meeting was arranged to meet President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and with Israeli Labour leader Issac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

The Sinn Fein president has now discovered he has been given the “no entry” sign and is not be able to cross into Gaza. People were quick to take to social media to condemn Israeli actions and Adams reacted with the following words,

“preventing me from travelling to Gaza and talking to those citizens who have survived 3 Israeli assaults in the last decade, runs contrary to the needs of a peace process and is very unhelpful.

The people of Palestine have a right to national statehood. Its not an issue for negotiation. It is a principle and a right. The international community has an obligation to support this and to uphold international law”

Adams is not alone in being barred. Norwegian, Dr Mads Gilbert a trauma surgeon is now facing a lifetime ban for “security reasons”. He became well known for his tweets from Shifa hospital Gaza describing the horrific injuries he and his team had to deal with when body after body was brought in during the 2014 bombardment by Israel. He views the denial of international support from qualified professionals as a form of “collective punishment” against Palestinians by a state that does not want to face the “inconvenient truth” of its actions.

Dr Mads Gilbert (left) and staff member holding the remains of a child (right) during bombing of Gaza by Israel

In an interview with Dr. Christof Lehmann, an independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution, Gilbert reminded the world of the shocking casualty figures during the recent attack on the Strip. He stated, “within 51 days they killed, according to the latest UN numbers, 2,131 Palestinians. Among them were 521 children, I repeat, 521 children. 71 Israelis were killed, among them 66 soldiers and 4 civilians, including one child.” He emphasized that even one child, one civilian, was one too many.

Sinn Fein Member European Parliament Martina Anderson criticized the decision of the Israeli government against Adams pointing out that she too had been refused entry to Gaza alongside a delegation of 16 other MEPs from 6 countries that she was leading back in September. She stated,

“as an internationally regarded statesman and peacemaker Gerry Adams brings a wealth of experience in dialogue and conflict resolution and his expertise could prove invaluable to the ongoing efforts towards peace in the region. 

“The Israeli government cannot hide Gaza from the outside world and I am calling for an immediate end to travel restrictions in and out of Gaza.”

Settlements & Separation Wall outside Jerusalem tweeted by Gerry Adams

Although Israel has blocked Adams, Israel is also facing a ban this week. Israeli company Elbit Systems was given the elbow by the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul which cancelled a major collaboration deal. The Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to persuade people not to buy or invest in Israeli products until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights, is taking effect. Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Palestinian “Stop the Wall” campaign and part of the BDS movement was quoted as saying,

“Elbit Systems has become a symbol of Israel’s construction of an apartheid wall in occupied Palestine and its military aggression against our people. Israel is only able to sustain its human rights violations because of international collaboration including through deals such as the one that the Rio Grande do Sul government has now cancelled.”

In November the Jerusalem Post reported that Leicester city council had taken the decision to ban all Israeli goods “for its continuing illegal occupation of Palestine’s East Jerusalem and the West Bank; for its continuing blockade of Gaza; and the illegal appropriation of land in the West Bank and settlement buildings.”

Gerry Adams plans to take further action in support of the Palestinians. Israel’s ban on him will no doubt strengthen resolve to persuade the Dail to debate a Palestinian State. His hope is that the Irish parliament will soon recognise the state of Palestine and upgrade the Palestinian Mission in Dublin to that of a full embassy. There could be no better response to Israel’s barring of Adams and Anderson than a positive decision from Dail!

Link

“Recognizing the Palestinian state ” (Gerry Adams)

http://leargas.blogspot.co.il/2014/12/recognising-palestinian-state.html

BDS Movement website

http://www.bdsmovement.net/

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.