Ireland

Gaza situation is ‘slow genocide that has been turned into a quick genocide’, TUI conference hears

Dr Salem Gharbia, who moved to Ireland 10 years ago and is head of environmental science at Atlantic University, Sligo, spoke at event

Delegates show solidarity with the people of Gaza at the Teachers Union of Ireland congress in Killarney on Thursday. Photograph: Tommy Clancy

Emmet Malone
Thu Apr 4 2024 - 17:27

The situation in Gaza “is a slow genocide that has been turned into a quick genocide”, Dr Salem Gharbia told fellow delegates at the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) conference in Killarney on Thursday morning.

The conference passed motions condemning the war and calling for an immediate ceasefire but for the Sligo based lecturer, the crisis is all deeply personal with close family members trapped or missing in Gaza while his parents and one sister wait in Cairo for permission to join him in Ireland.

Dr Gharbia, who moved to Ireland 10 years ago, has since become an Irish citizen and is head of environmental science at Atlantic University, Sligo says he is concerned for the health of his parents, Said and Afaf, who are diabetic, but is relieved that along with his sister Zaina, they have at least made it to Egypt.

His other sisters are still in Gaza and while he is in intermittent and indirect contact with Nour after an initial break, he has not heard from Naima in several weeks and his concern for her is clear as he speaks. Each has three children.

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“My parents are now in Cairo working on their paperwork and hopefully there’ll be joining us here,” he says. “My sisters are still in Gaza, I lost contact with them for a period of over 15 weeks. They went missing. We managed to locate one but we’re not in direct contact. My other sister I still have no news of. Hopefully she and her kids are safe somewhere.”

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The Department of Foreign Affairs has provided assistance but, he says, “there is not much they can do beyond making inquiries, the whole area is controlled by Israel”. He has been supported by some of his local TDs including Marian Harkin.

He has, he says, already lost “so many people, cousins, one of them three years old,” and talks about the living conditions those still trapped in the area are having to endure.

“It’s very difficult. Before my parents and my sister escaped, for two weeks they were in Rafah and they were displaced three times. My elderly parents, they lived in a tent in Rafah for weeks. They were out of their medication. They’re both diabetic. In miserable conditions. Sanitation is in a terrible condition.

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“The food is very little. People are starving. And that’s combined now with the risk of diseases spreading. Everybody’s getting sick and there is no healthcare at all. And even this madness stops today, it’s not as if they will be able to leave their tents. Seventy-five per cent of the accommodation is gone.”

Addressing delegates he spoke of the widespread destruction of educational infrastructure, 92 per cent of which, he said, had been damaged or destroyed with 12 universities targeted and 95 professors killed.

“It’s appalling, disgusting, a shame on humanity that this has been allowed to happen,” he said. “As educators, we have to stand for our values.”

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times

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