Michelle Read

15/15 Such sanctions are especially urgent now – it is the only way to stop the killings. We call on our government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and we call on all Irish people to join the campaign for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel. No more killings.

14/15 Jews for Palestine are proud to stand with other Palestinian solidarity groups in support of BDS and justice. Israel will need to be sanctioned before it will change its apartheid system.

13/15 They have been clear and consistent that what they want the international community to do is to support non-violent resistance through supporting the international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

12/15 Under international law, Palestinians have every right to resist the military occupation of their land by the Israeli army – violently or non-violently.

11/15 The Israeli system of governance is recognised by human rights groups from Amnesty to Human Rights Watch, as well as all major Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations as apartheid. Apartheid is a system of permanent violence.

10/15 No people can tolerate generations of oppression without resisting, nor should they be expected to.

9/15 But the problem is deeper than this, these killings are an inevitable part of Israel’s maintenance of a system of decades-long colonial control and dispossession. Palestinian resistance to this colonisation is equally inevitable.

8/15 Before this round of violence, over 200 Palestinians and 35 Israelis had been killed in 2023, already the bloodiest year since the second intifada.

7/15 Israel’s recently elected far-right government, working hand in glove with paramilitary settlers, has been ratcheting up attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and especially Jerusalem.

6/15 We have seen the sickening sight of Israeli aircraft bombing tightly packed Palestinian neighbourhoods time and again and we know that if Israel is allowed to kill civilians with impunity, it will continue to do so.

5/15 Medical personnel have reported that these air attacks have killed hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, even while the actual fighting is in Israel.

4/15 As our government condemned the Hamas incursions into Israel, so too must it condemn and act upon Israel’s even greater attacks on Gaza, which are taking the form of indiscriminate mass murder.

3/15 So far, hundreds of innocent Palestinians and scores of innocent Israelis have been killed in this latest round of violence. Our hearts go out to all of them and to their families. The first imperative must be to stop the killings.