Cork Palestine rally: 'Israeli troops killed my uncle as he was looking ...
A Gazan woman told a rally for Palestine today how her uncle was killed by Israeli forces while he was out looking for bread to feed his starving family.
Abla Shaladan, who managed to escape the war in Gaza because her husband is Irish, shared her harrowing story during the weekly rally and march for Palestine through Cork city, organised by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Organisers said about 900 people marched through the city to call on the Irish government to take much stronger action against Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinan people.
They heard Abla explain how she was prevented from leaving Gaza with her husband on October 9 and only managed to eventually escape on February 27.
During those long months in Gaza, she faced constant bombardment and had to move from at least six different houses of family members as she and her family sought refuse.
Artist Martha Cashman with Darina Allen and Rory Allen, Ballymaloe Cookery School, ahead of Saturday's Cork Empty Bowls Food Gathering for Palestine at St Peter's Church on North Main St. All proceeds are going to Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza. Picture: Darragh KaneShe spoke of how they suffered from intense hunger, and of how several family members were killed during the conflict.
Other speakers at today’s rally included doctor and anaesthetist, Eugene Egan, who said language has been exhausted and that there are now no more words left to describe the unremitting horror of what is now happening in Gaza.
Dr Egan said: “Last week in University College Cork the raging inferno of Gaza was harrowingly described by an outstanding UK surgeon.”
He listed the unimaginable mutilating injuries and the brutal deaths being suffered — even now — by that tortured population.
"However if Israel attacks Rafah, that surgeon’s grim account will pale into insignificance."
He was referring to Nick Maynard, who is due to return to the war-torn region later this month, after he spoke at UCC this month to tell the public in Cork of the “crimes being committed” by Israeli forces in Gaza.
This week's rally for Palestine in Cork also heard from Eugene Egan, a doctor who is pictured here addressing healthcare workers at the February vigil at CUH in honour of the 400 health workers who had been killed in Gaza to that date. Picture: David Creedon“There is deliberate targeting of doctors, of nurses, and of hospitals,” Professor Maynard claimed. “These are not accidents. These are deliberate targeting, such as the humanitarian aid workers this week."
Israel has denied claims attacks have been deliberate, describing them as "nonsense" and "absurd".
Gary Baus, of the Community Action Tenants Union of Ireland (CATU), spoke about the importance of boycotting and divesting from corporations aligned with Israel.
Speakers at this week's Cork Palestine solidarity march included Abla Shaladan who managed to flee Gaza, doctor and anaesthetist Eugene Egan, and Gary Baus of the Community Action Tenants Union.“We cannot depend on the governments of the world to stop the war because they and the economic interests they represent benefit from the war. It’s up to us,” he said.
Martin Shiel, co-chair of the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign, repeated their calls for immediate sanctions now.
The rally was one of two pro-Palestine events in the city today.
Fine art sculptor and ceramicist, Martha Cashman, staged an Empty Bowls for Gaza food event for Médicins Sans Frontières, featuring clay bowls made by the actor Mary McEvoy, Darina Allen, Rory O’Connell, and Orla McAndrew.
