Sir, - As a participant in the Healthcare Workers for Palestine silent procession last Saturday through Dublin city centre, I wish to commend your correspondent Conor Pope for his related article (“‘A different type of protest’: Silence speaks volumes as healthcare workers march for Gaza in Dublin,” February 7th).
Conor captured perfectly the mood of the protest and the manner in which those who stopped from their Saturday sojourn on Grafton Street to respectfully acknowledge what was happening before them. His words matched the solemnity and the poignancy of a simple yet powerful display of humanity.
This protest came in a week when the Israel Defence Forces put its hands up to the world and accepted the death toll in Gaza is 70,000 people (which appears to be understated). That figure includes 20,000 children and 1,700 healthcare workers. In the same week, the Israeli government confirmed a number of aid agencies will have to cease operations by the end of this month.
Israel will argue other aid agencies can fill the gap left by the likes of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the UN Relief and Works Agency, ActionAid and the Norwegian Refugee Council. What needs to be understood is how well established MSF and the other excluded agencies are within Gaza. In a place where almost all of the medical infrastructure has been destroyed, they are critical in delivering medical support to the population.
READ MORE
As we progressed down Grafton Street in silence, there was another silence strongly evident. The deafening silence of governments worldwide.
To date, no government or international body has been prepared to hold Israel to account on this latest abuse. An abuse which brings even greater suffering to the people of Gaza, if that were possible.
A suffering of long, painful and isolated deaths. As has marked the last two-plus years, the world again becomes a bystander as the doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff of these organisations are banned and we see a further erosion of our own humanity.
Your correspondent, along with those who walked and those who stood in acknowledgment, offer remembrance and hope through their actions, while simultaneously holding governments to account. Maybe, some day soon, the deafening silence will be broken. - Yours, etc,
PHILIP BRADY,
Former interim CEO, Irish Medical Council,
Donnycarney,
Dublin 9.
