Madam, – The letter from Justin Kilcullen, writing on behalf of Trócaire, to my astonishment, contains many untruths. He should not believe everything he is told.
He states he was informed by a young Palestinian that “goods like petrol can’t enter Gaza. Hardly any food comes in. All we want is normality.” For your readers and Mr Kilcullen’s information, the Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories stated that last week a total of 619 trucks bearing 13,593 tons of supplies delivered various foods and other goods to the region. (Wheat, meat, chicken and fish products and dairy produce.) The Nahal Oz fuel terminal pumped in 1,461,000 litres of diesel for the region’s power station. 44,704 litres of gasoline entered Gaza from Israel.
It would be far better if Mr Kilcullen and Trócaire were to try to get Hamas to release the captured Israeli soldier, or at least to allow the International Red Cross to visit this unfortunate man who has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for almost four years.
Perhaps if this tiny amount of humanity was forthcoming then Mr Kilcullen’s informant would receive his “normality”. In the meantime, Egypt is constructing a steel barrier to prevent supplies reaching Gaza from Egypt. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In praising the democratic credentials of Israel in support of its (now successful) application to the OECD, Desmond FitzGerald (May 7th) refers to Israel’s “fully functioning” civil society. Mr FitzGerald will perhaps be concerned to learn that civil society in Israel is under significant threat.
In March, legislation was tabled in the Knesset which will have the effect of greatly restricting the work of civil society organisations. Under the pretext of increasing transparency around foreign funding of Israeli NGOs, this legislation seeks to define political activity so broadly that any organisation “seeking to influence public opinion in Israel” would be labelled political and would lose its tax-exempt status and force many NGOs into scaling back their work significantly.
Similarly, on April 28th, another Bill was tabled by 18 members of the Knesset, challenging the registration of Israeli NGOs where the authorities believe the NGO may have assisted in the documenting or collecting of evidence of human rights abuses in Israel that may lead to the prosecution of the perpetrators under the law of international jurisdiction most famously used to arrest Augusto Pinochet of Chile.
Clearly this will have serious implications for the existence of many courageous Israeli NGOs that report on human rights abuses and breaches of international law. It undermines human rights defenders working to uphold the rule of law and combat impunity. If such a law were to be enacted it would strike at the very heart of the democratic space in which civil society is supposed to operate, and which Israel purports to defend and respect.
Mr FitzGerald is correct in calling for greater consistency in the international community’s application of human rights standards. Where states are seen to be in contravention of international law or abusing human rights, they should be held accountable regardless of who they are or what power they wield. Christian Aid supports both Israeli and Palestinian human rights NGOs in their efforts to uphold human rights standards and to hold their elected representatives to account.
In assessing Israel’s application to the OECD it was the duty of the member states to assess whether the applicant attains the democratic standards required by the OECD. Shutting down the democratic space in which Israeli civil society operates falls short of the standards that Mr FitzGerald and the Israeli public can justifiably expect from their government and should not have been ignored by the OECD Council in its considerations. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Rather than asking the Government to veto Israel’s OECD membership bid (May 6th), perhaps Justin Kilcullen (May 10th) along with the 17 members of the Oireachtas referred to in his letter might instead engage in doing something constructive to help the peace process in the Middle East – such as asking Micheál Martin to persuade the Hamas leadership to renounce terrorism and recognise Israel’s right to exist. – Yours, etc,