Irish Bishops help to Highlight Palestinian Tragedy

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday February 28, 2007 02:25 by PaddyK

Irish Bishops make light rebuke of Israeli policy in Palestine but is there really an reason to expect real action in light of other recent church releases ?

According to an Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz, report Irish Bishops have registered their concerns over Israeli policy towards Palestinian Human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Haaretz reports :

++ A group of Irish Roman Catholic bishops on Tuesday called into question Ireland's commercial ties with Israel, saying Israel has made the Gaza Strip "little more than a large prison" for Palestinians. ++

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/831315.html

This new found moral presence on behalf of the Church is a welcome development.
We only have to remember back to last years Irish Ecumenical Silence regarding the collective punishment, by massacre, in Gaza of Palestinian people and by sudden bombardment and invasion of Lebanese civil society to feel a familiar creepy moral shortcoming on behalf of the Irish church.
The ongoing political embargo of Palestinian society in a European backed siege, for their having voted in a successful election, under which more than half of all households now suffer starvation thanks to official European government policy., goes generally unhighlighted by the concerned Christian establishment here.

Though this bishop's statement is a wonderful development which brings Palestinian suffering to the forefront of international relations briefly, it rings somewhat hollow in light of the recent Communiqué of the Coordination of Episcopal Conferences in support of the Church in the Holy Land.

http://www.catholiccommunications.ie/Pressrel/18-januar....html

This document reads a little like an Israeli Army press release with lines like:

++In the wake of a traumatic year for Israelis, Palestinians and the peoples of the Middle East, ++

++In a meeting with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, we expressed an understanding of the significant security challenges that face Israel. ++

++The restraint of violence and the recognition of the state of Israel by all elements of Palestinian society will help rebuild the international community’s confidence in and support of the Palestinian Authority. ++

And there’s a lot more of that, with some light plugging of the Holy Land as a tourist destination with no real mention of Israel's occupation of Jerusalem or it's obligation under historically agreed international law to vacate Palestinian Land and it’s obvious continuing Human rights infringements.

So the bottom line is, Well done the Bishops of Ireland. Now, Wake up and smell the gunpowder.