Buncrana Palestinian Support Group secure Palestinian flag to cross at Fahan mountain summit

In a statement, the members of the group said: “This Christmas a Palestinian Christian minister from Bethlehem, Pastor Munther Isaac, ‘called out’ Christian Churches from Europe and North America for their calculated and immoral silence in the face of Israel's genocidal massacre and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

“His honesty is being shared by many local people, who are bewildered at the Church's moral cowardice in remaining silent about Israel's atrocities.

“This New Year's Day, members of the Buncrana Palestinian Support Group secured a Palestinian flag to the cross at the summit of Fahan mountain.

“Our members reflect the wonderful diversity of our community. We are made up of humanists as well different faith backgrounds and we respect the richness of our diversity.”

The group said that the securing of the flag ‘encourages local people of faith to follow the example of the Palestinian Jew who was born to a refugee mother and father, who had to flee to Egypt due to the genocidal massacre carried out by the militarily powerful occupiers’.

“As an adult man he practiced empathy and compassion for the socially marginalised and demanded justice for the poor and oppressed. His radical humanity was a threat to the religious and political elites and for that he was executed on a cross as a political prisoner by the occupiers.

They added: “Today the Zionist occupiers of Palestine have massacred over 20,000 civilians. They have made explicit their genocidal intent through the depraved statements of their political and military leaders

“They have followed through with their intent with the collective punishment and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian civilian population. Israel has murdered over 9,000 children with many more unaccounted for under the thousands of demolished buildings. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) revealed that more than 1000 children in Gaza have had one or more limbs amputated during Israel's genocidal campaign to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Many of these children have had to endure their amputations without anaesthetic.

The group added that ‘somewhere in Israel people have sat around a table and decided that anaesthetics would not be allowed into Gaza.”

“Raising the flag at the Fahan cross, symbolises our determination to transform the political realities of our Palestinian sisters and brothers. We stand with the majority of Irish people as a countersign to the barbarism of the Military Industrial Complex and the corporate extraction companies, who like vultures circle Gaza in anticipation of the profits that will be made from the offshore natural gas reserves, which should be at the disposal of the Palestinian people.

The group outlined how it is ‘always easy to have moral clarity when we analyse genocides that occurred many decades ago’.

"This is the first time in history when genocide is being revealed with such clarity as it happens. Therefore it is impossible to feign ignorance about the atrocities. Those who remain silent should not delude themselves that they are being politically or morally neutral. Their silence is assisting Israel to continue the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the people of Palestine.”

Addressing Church leaders who ‘preach about a God of love,; they said: “You would do well to remember that the opposite of love is not always hate;quite often it is indifference, the inability to empathise, and to respond with compassion and justice for the oppressed.

“We ask Churches from all denominations to allow themselves to be inspired by the ethical actions and inspirational words of Martin Luther King Jr, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

“It is now time for the ecclesiastical bureaucrats to use whatever influence they have to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, in order to create a just political solution that will allow for ethical coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.