Spontaneous applause erupts in Council Chamber as Palestinian motion discussed

A motion entitled Violence in Gaza and Southern Israel put forward at last Monday's November council meeting saw heartfelt and emotional submissions from joint motion submitters Slieve Gullion Councillor Pete Byrne and Newry City Councillor Cathal King. Indeed so powerful was Cllr Byrnes introduction that it was followed by a round of applause in the council chamber.

Cllr Byrne spoke of his personal experiences on his trip to the West Bank last year and condemned the 'collective punishment' currently being dealt out to the Palestinian people while Cllr King spoke of how welcoming the Arab people were on his visit and how he got a real insight into the Israeli occupation of the territory.

Following submissions by many other councillors, some explaining why they wouldn't be supporting the motion, it was passed 26 for, 5 against and 4 abstentions.

We publish below the submissions from Cllr Byrne and Cllr King in full.

Cllr Pete Byrne  

I'm sure every single person in this chamber tonight is horrified watching the scenes of chaos and destruction, engullfing Gaza over the last month.

As of today we've heard on the radio that the death toll as a result of Israeli aggression from October, the seventh has passed 10,000. 10,000 lives lost including 4800 children and 2550 women, all mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, human beings with names and faces being indiscriminately slaughtered.

The barbaric attack carried out by Hamas on October 7th has rightly been condemned by all. 1400 innocent Israelis massacred and over 200 taken hostage. Unconscionable inhumanity. But Chair inhumanity is not a phenomenon that exists only in Israel and Palestine. It exists the world over. What differentiates the Palestinian conflict is the sharp divergence in the application of moral outrage. Why is a Palestinian life worth less in the world's eyes. How can the collective punishment of innocent Palestinian civilians be dressed up as self defense - 10,000 bombs dropped on the civilian population of 2.3 million crammed into an area the size of the Ards Peninsula, compounded by the fact that the entire population are forcibly displaced into half that area with absolutely no means of escape.

Schools and Hospitals bombed, aid supplies cut off, food and water running out, power and communications cut to the outside world. Collective punishment being inflicted on innocent men, women and children for the actions of a paramilitary group.

It's unimaginable to think that Israel would systematically and relentlessly carpet bomb its own population if Hamas were hiding in a southern town in Israel, justifying the slaughter of their own people as the cost to defeat Hamas. But imagine for a second that happened. Imagine in the midst of the carnage that the wounded receiving treatment or the displaced seeking safe refuge were then bombed in the sanctury of a hospital or their place of worship. What would the response of the world have been? Would they equivocate. Would they brazenly state that incident civillians deserved their comeupance for the actions of paramilitaries. Would they offer blank cheques and statements of ironclad support for those authorising the attacks. Of course they wouldn't. So why is it deemed acceptable in Gaza?

Chair to observe the dehumanisation of Palestinians in the media has been absolutely staggering. To inextricably link Palestinian civilians with the actions of Hamas is both morally wrong and factually inaccurate. The civilians being murdered in Gaza are every bit as innocent as civilians who are murdered in Israel. And if we allow our outrage and indignation to be limited or inhibited on the basis of what passport a victim holds, we aren't just defacing the humanity of Palestinians. We're defacing our own humanity.

For me and for Cllr King, Cllr Murphy and many other people who visit the area It feels deeply personal. Last summer I spent a couple of weeks in Palestine teaching children in a summer school and setting up the student scholarship fund to help Palestinian students gain entry to university. I can honestly hand on heart say I found them to be the most decent, salt-of-the-earth people that I've ever met. The hardship that they have to endure is appalling but most of them get on with it with a smile on their face.

I want to touch on one person that I met over there because it brings the human factor to this. I made a real connection with a young kid called Kais. Kais had no English whatsoever but we connected through sport. Every time he'd seek me out in the playground after classes, and we'd spend the entire time, 30 to 40 minutes throwing a ball, a small tennis ball back and forward. The happiness that he got from a simple tennis ball was beyond humbling. On the last day he signed my t-shirt before we left the school. He just wrote his name because he had no English and drew a wee ball so I'd remember him. Two days before leaving for the airport he got a message to me through his mum to meet him at the Virgin Mary statue in the centre of Jiffna. I was surprised when I went in and met him, and there he was sitting with his mum and his sisters. He'd used his pocket money to buy me a small necklace and said, 'Please don't forget about me'. And I promised him that I wouldn't forget about him and tonight I want to give him a voice. Last week I seen the image of young boy lying dead in the dirt in Gaza and there was a tennis ball sticking out of his pocket. That image hit so hard. It hit so hard because he's some mother's child. One of the 4800 children whose life was cruely cut short.

Chair the human beings dying on our screens are not some abstract statistics in some godforsaken place. I've broken bread with these people, kicked football with them, laughed with them, celebrated weddings with them. But you don't need to know someone to defend their dignity. You don't need to have met someone to know that their life is as valuable as your own. There's a moral obligation upon every single person to use their voice, however small it may feel, to defend human dignity of every innocent person trapped in this brutality.

Israeli government claim that their sole aim is to rid Gaza of Hamas. Let's think about that for one minute. What would Palestine look like if Hamas were removed entirely? You don't have to look far for the answer - The West Bank. Hamas have no place in the West Bank and yet we continue to watch innocent Palestinians murdered there and forcibly removed from their homes as settler violence grows under protection of the Israeli Army.

Time and time again we witness clear violations of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 95. were aimed at fulfilling the right of the Palestinian people to self determination. Peace agreements that cost Israeli Prime Minister Rabin his life in 1995, when he was assassinated for showing the leadership required for signing those peace agreements. A time of hope and promise that feels utterly unreachable today. The time where America under the Clinton Presidency focused its efforts in bringing both sides together in peace, not driving them apart through war. We find ourselves at a time where the world is devoid of that leadership, unforgivably where the governments of the world have failed to call for so much as a ceasefire. The images of Rabin and Arafat shaking hands in the White House have been dishonored by current administrations. 

We are witnessing the genocide of a people and yet Western governments continue to send 10s of billions of pounds in military aid to Netanyahu's government in Israel. Surely this only emboldens belligerence. Where is the humanity in all of this. There is a moral obligation on the governments of the world who have pledged their support and friendship for Israel to recognise that friends tell each other the truth, and the truth is an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Western nations must use their considerable power to insist upon an immediate establishment of unrestricted humanitarian corridors in Gaza, a complete cessation of hostilities and an urgent resumption of the dialogue between both sides to establish a just and lasting peace, where the dignity and security of both Israel and Palestine are guaranteed. If the governments of the world were to hold themselves to their own values, and insist upon the cessation of violence, then not a single person more would need to die.

Chair a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. speaks volumes at this time - Violence begets violence, hate begets hate and toughness begets a greater toughness. It is all a descending spiral and the end is destruction for everybody. Along the way of life, someone must have the sense and morality to cut off the chain of hate. Chair the whole world is watching but watching is not enough. We must speak up. We must use our platform as councilllors. and call for a ceasefire. As a council we must make our position crystal clear and that's why we call on both UK and Irish governments to immediately expel their Israeli Ambassadors. I hope every member here in the chamber tonight will support our joint motion. Thanks Cathal King for joining me on this motion.

Cllr Cathal King

Thanks Cllr Byrne for agreeing to work on a joint motion and it did deserve a round of applause there because he spoke from the heart.

I travelled to Palestine as you mentioned and we hold that deep personal connection, and every day it's absolutely heartbreaking.

I want to highlight my experience having travelled to Palestine and the West Bank and provide a brief context to what the last 75 years has been like prior to this recent escalation. In June of '22 I travelled to the city of Hebron, Palestine as part of a human rights in conflict internship for two weeks. Checkpoints watchtowers and fortification walls. It was on this journey that I truly felt the weight of the word 'occupation'. Arriving in the city of Hebron, I was taken from the ill ease of the military occupation, to the warmth of the world renowned Arab hospitality and Pete touched on that. I spoke to the locals and other international visitors from all walks of life, each person as welcoming as last.

My days in Hebron consisted of meeting human rights organisations, visiting refugee camps and speaking to the local businesses to hear about how they cope with the harsh realities of military oppression. My trip to Palestine was certainly an eye opener. You began to see what real oppression and difficulty looks like.

Freedom of movement is restricted with separate roads, number plates and IDs singling out the Palestinians, while fortifications are erected at the whim of their oppressor, carved up and separating them from their ancestral home. Generations have been shackled and a nation strangled for just existing. It's been 75 years of colonial ethnic cleansing and displacement. The violence and humanitarian crisis in Palestine deepens by the day.

Israel are engaged in a ferocious military offensive against the civilian population, breaking international law by targeted civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, forcing mass population displacement and cutting off vital supplies of water, food, medicines or fuels. This is happening before the eyes of the world and it must be confronted.

Israel defies these calls for a ceasefire. This cannot stand. Lastly the position of the Israeli Ambassador on this island is now untenable. My colleague Pat Sheehan told the ambassador to pack her bags and go, I echo his words and remind the ambassador if she has not already, to pack her bags and go.

Motion - Violence in Gaza and Southern Israel from Councillors Byrne and King:

That this Council condemns the horrifying violence and indiscriminate murder of civilians; expresses its solidarity with civilians in the region who face the threat of air strikes, rocket attacks, abduction and the most unthinkable forms of murder every day; calls for an immediate ceasefire; the delivery of humanitarian aid to provide relief to the civilian population in Gaza; further calls for the immediate and safe release of all

hostages; supports a full International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of potential war crimes committed; and calls for full adherence to international humanitarian and human rights law; an international intervention with leadership brought to bear in securing dialogue, a lasting peace and a long-term solution that ends this crisis.