7 slain aid workers hailed as selfless
FRIENDS and relatives have mourned the loss of the seven aid workers in Gaza who were slain in Israeli airstrikes.
They were delivering food to besieged Palestinians with the charity World Central Kitchen.
Killed were three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian.
Among them, the brothers of Saif Issam Abu Taha (27) described him as a dedicated young man eager to help fellow Palestinians.
Saif had hoped to get married. “My mother was looking for a wife for him,” brother Abdul Razzaq Abu Taha said. “He was supposed to get married if the war didn’t happen.”
Brave
Elsewhere, friends and family remembered Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom (43) as a brave, selfless woman whose care for others drew her across the globe.
“We mourn this fine Australian who has a record of helping out her fellow citizens,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Polish man Damian Sobol (35), was known as a friendly and resourceful manager in World Central Kitchen.
“He was a really extraordinary guy,” said Marta Wilczynska, of the Free Place Foundation, which cooperates with World Central Kitchen.
PROTESTERS chanted “how many children have to die” and “Palestine will be free” as they demonstrated outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin yesterday.
Cars honked horns on the busy Ballsbridge street as protesters shouted for the expulsion of the Israel Ambassador Dana Erlich.
One of the organisers of the demo, Dublin GAA legend Dr David Hickey, said he wants to see more Irish people making noise about the “horrific genocide” in Gaza.
“We get nothing when we do nothing, we need to recognise Palestine as a state, we need to expel the ambassador and we need to sanction Israel,” he said.
Asked if he would consider escalating the protest, such as disrupting traffic, Dr Hickey said: “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place with this, if you are peaceful everything goes nicely but there’s no impact but you also don’t want to be causing trouble for trouble’s sake.
“But time is running out, in a month’s time half the population will be dead and Israel knows that.”
Dr Hickey said he doesn’t know anyone in Gaza who has died, but knows many Palestinian medical students here who are deeply worried about their families.
The former Dublin GAA player, along with other protesters, held placards of pictures and names of children who have died in Gaza, as others waved signs saying ‘Stop the genocide now’, ‘Free Palestine’, and ‘Expel the Israeli Ambassador Now’.
After seven aid workers were killed in Gaza this week, demonstrators said action needs to be taken immediately to provide humanitarian aid and implement a ceasefire.
Pressure
Michael Doherty, who set up Gaels Against Genocide in Gaza, said he believes more pressure is now on the Irish Government to expel the Israeli ambassador following the deaths of aid workers.
He added: “It’s terrible that the humanitarian workers dying appear to be more important than the lives of 33,000 Palestinians.”
Mr Doherty has many friends from Palestine, who he met at an annual Anti-Racism World Cup event in his local area Lenadoon, in Belfast. Before war broke out in October, the organisation would fly Palestinian children and coaches over for a football tournament.
The Belfast native said he hasn’t been able to get in contact with
Social Right Ireland protestor Roisin McAleer these people, and he doesn’t know if they are alive. “It’s horrendous, the fact that people can’t get out and we don’t know what’s going on,” he added.
Mr Doherty said he wasn’t disappointed in the turnout at the protest, as it was held in the middle of a working day.
“If we held this on a Saturday we would have thousands here. But if this embassy was in Belfast there would be a protest here everyday of the week until this woman [the Israeli Ambassador] was expelled.”
Many people from the North travelled to Dublin to attend the protest, including Roisin McAleer, from Co Tyrone.
Ms McAleer, who is part of Social Rights Ireland, said she isn’t worried that Irish people’s support for Palestine is waning.
She added: “This isn’t the only protest happening right now. It’s a working day and people are legging it from their lunch break to be here, if anything people are more mobilised and angry, so just because you have smaller numbers in different pockets across the country it doesn’t mean that people don’t care.
“What happened this week with aid workers being slaughtered, we are absolutely outraged. You can hear the energy in people’s voices – it’s not low key, people are extremely angry.”
Liam Mellows, from Co Kildare, said he believed this demonstration outside the Israeli embassy was overdue, adding: “I was off work so I felt like I had to get down and show my support for the Palestinian cause because I feel like there hasn’t been a concentrated effort to protest at the embassy.”