We are in Israel’s genocidal endgame for Gaza — we must stop it now

 My article in Today's Examiner. Please read, share, speak, act.

Read the whole article here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41632717.html

We are bequeathing our children a world of horror and death, livestreamed, with no consequences for the perpetrators 

Ahmed El-Sheikh Eid, 7, shows signs of malnutrition, at his family tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Picture: AP Photo

"News coverage of this genocide was recently dictated, not by these human rights experts, but by Sharon Osborne's thoughts on Kneecap. On Monday, Save the Children warned, “Every single child is at risk of famine … They are being starved by design, under Israeli authorities' total siege. There is food, water, and medical aid ready to go, but it’s being blocked at the border while families are forced to eat animal feed and leaves, taking unimaginable and dehumanising measures to survive”.

The same day, RTÉ news at 9pm distorted the Pope’s speech, changing his call for the release of “all” hostages to “Israeli” hostages. This isn’t just bias, the erasure of Palestinians in this way is emblematic of dehumanising reporting that has arguably enabled the manufacturing of consent for the actual erasure of Palestinians in Gaza."

Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AP 

US support

The US proposition of putting mercenaries in charge of aid in Gaza is akin to putting Jeffrey Epstein in charge of a centre for vulnerable teenagers. The US consistently voted against a ceasefire. It supplies the bombs to blow children to smithereens and destroy aid depots. Donald Trump has announced plans to desecrate Gaza with a golden Riviera where global fascists can convene to exchange torture techniques whilst eating happy meals, washed down by Coca-Cola to the soundtrack of Israel’s Eurovision entry. Because make no mistake, if the US and Israel get away with genocide in Gaza, it won’t end there.

The UN says at least 100 children have been killed or injured every day in Gaza since the Israeli strikes resumed on March 18. 

One of them was 4-month-old Youssef who was starved to death. The footage of his tiny, emaciated body, bones poking through a thin layer of skin, terror in his bulging eyes, will haunt me forever. This is what moral collapse looks like

If you’re tuning in to watch Israel dance on the mangled bones (there are no graves) of the butchered at the Eurovision this week, think of the 500 children who will be killed, starved or injured over the course of those five days. What’s another year — of normalising genocide.

Our youth are watching this horror, livestreamed on their phones, witnessing the decimation of world order and humanity by the collective moral breakdown of Western governments, aided and abetted by a largely supine Western media. Knowing their silence is complicity, they protest peacefully, many arrested and labelled terrorists — for wanting peace. Is a world infused with hate and cruelty, rampaging with impunity, what we want to bequeath our children?"

While you're here, please don't forget about the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. The UN is also warning of famine unfolding there.

 https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161766. When will learn to stop voting for war mongers.

Amnesty analysis (December 2024): Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

"Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. 

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International

For  details of Amnesty's forensic investigation of the evidence, please read full report here👇

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience".

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International

Tomorrow: Protest calling for Eurovision Boycott to take place at RTÉ Studios - singers, musicians, artists and activists to take part in mini-concert

Press Release, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Thursday May 8th 2025

Tomorrow evening, Friday 9th May, between 5pm and 6:30pm the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will stage a mini-concert calling for Ireland to boycott Eurovision 2025 outside RTÉ Studios gates (Stillorgan Road entrance). The action will feature artists, musicians, and LGBT and human rights activists, and the chairperson of RTÉ NUJ Broadcast Branch.

Great visuals for photographers and television reporting. Interviews with musicians, artists, and activists available at the RTE gate.

Israel is determined to artwash its genocide in Gaza and West Bank war crimes, and is using the occasion of the Eurovision Song Contest to project an image of itself as a 'normal' state - when it is anything but. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural boycott of Israel (PACBI), and the Palestinian led global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement have called on all countries to refuse to participate because of Israel’s inclusion by the EBU - the same EBU that indefinitely suspended Russia and Belarus in 2022.

This week we have seen great strides in the Boycott Eurovision Campaign across Europe with Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, Spain publicly questioning Israel's participation. More than 70 former contestants signed a letter demanding that Israel’s national broadcaster KAN be banned, including Irish Eurovision contestants; Charlie McGettigan, Mickey Harte, Brian Kennedy and Mark Caplice. Speaking to the Irish Times, Charlie McGettigan said “When we see what is going on in Gaza, on our televisions, every evening, it is horrifying, it is pitiful…The Eurovision Song Contest has an audience of 200 million around the world. People love Eurovision. If we can use that platform to make people aware, it should be used”.

In addition to this the RTÉ broadcasting branch of the NUJ publicly announced that they had written to RTÉ’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst. The pressure of the campaign, including more than 600 emails from the public, has compelled RTÉ to contact the EBU to raise concerns about Israel’s participation. However, the EBU has remained committed to the position that Israel remains part of the Eurovision, and RTE has reiterated to continue with Irish participaction whether or not Israel is allowed to compete.

Eman Mohammed, Palestinian award-winning photojournalist from Gaza and Trevor Keegan, RTÉ presenter, producer and chair of the RTÉ’s broadcasting branch of the NUJ will speak on the importance of Journalistic integrity and the need for RTÉ to stand on the right side of history. They will be joined by a host of amazing and talented Irish and Palestinian musicians such as Keith Donald (Moving Hearts), Eoghan Scott, Talha WiseWolf, Aoife Kelly & Ciara Murphy (Biird), Ellen O’Meara, Tarrach (Groveline), The event will be MCed by Bronadh Ní Bhrian (IPSC). 

IPSC Chairperson, Zoe Lawlor said: “The Times of Israel reports that the staging for Israel’s performance this year will include a balcony that Kan says is a 'symbolic nod' to the famous image of Zionism's founder Theodor Herzl standing on a balcony in Basel, Switzerland. We are repulsed by this blatant attempt by Israel's national broadcaster to culture-wash the apartheid state's official, racist, ideology Zionism at the Eurovision. It’s vital to exclude the genocidal apartheid state of Israel from this global cultural platform, NOW! Ireland showed the way in the 1980s, standing resolutely against the racist and murderous crimes of Apartheid South Africa. RTÉ can help do the same now, by withdrawing its participation, and standing on the side of humanity, equality and human rights. Boycott Eurovision 2025!”