North Mayo councillors deserve credit for rightly holding Israel to account

The elected members of Ballina Municipal District deserve a certain degree of credit for taking a firm stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict and being the first elected body in these parts to do so.

In a political climate in which there is a strange reluctance to condemn Israel for its atrocities in Gaza with the same level of outrage as Russia’s criminal activities in Ukraine, it is only right that Israel is held to account, as should the Palestine terrorist group, Hamas, whose killing of over 1,200 innocent people in Israel on October 7 last initiated this latest, horrific Middle East crisis.

For the last number of weeks our television screens have been dominated by the most sickening of violent attacks on men, women and children in Palestine as Israel launched a bitter and bloody response to the Hamas attack.

There has to be accountability for this in a world where the condemnation of violence in all of its faces must be of paramount importance.

But the semantics of Daíl motions calling on the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Ireland is not the answer.

As Sligo TD Marian Harkin rightly pointed out, Ireland should be using whatever leverage it has within the UN and the US, in particular.

Yet our Taoiseach was, strangely, not exactly the flavour of the month across Europe when he rightly described Israel's actions in Gaza as ‘something approaching revenge’.

"I strongly believe that Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again.

"What I'm seeing unfolding at the moment isn't just self defence. It resembles something more approaching revenge," he said.

Mayo County Councillor Seamus Weir, a former member of Fine Gael, issued a statement concurring with Mr. Varadkar's viewpoint.

But he was disappointed that no support was forthcoming when he raised the issue at the November meeting of Mayo County Council - but was subsequently backed when he raised the matter at a meeting of Ballina Municipal District last Wednesday.

Agreement was reached at the Ballina meeting to write a letter to An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to indicate their support for the Irish government's call for a ceasefire in the conflict.

Being of the view that all politics is local, the surge of protest against genocide by Israel in Palestine needs to begin at grassroots level and bring the message firmly home to political leaders.

Interestingly, Councillor Weir also stated he is disappointed that the Palestinian and Ukrainian national flags, which had been flying outside the offices of Ballina Municipal District, have been taken down, much to the dismay of council staff and townspeople.

The removal of the two flags is not conducive to sending out the right message and the decision should be immediately reversed.