How Do They Ignore The Horror?

It’s hard. We see new death and destruction everyday on social media, and even the daily sanitised footage on the news is as bad as the worst of footage from wars. I saw a huge aid palette crush people the other day in Gaza as it fell at speed from the sky. The video had played before I could decide to shield myself from its horror. Then I remembered that I have that privilege. I can choose to shield myself, to not watch, to try to put it to the back of my mind, to ignore it. How do I justify doing that, when I see Bisan Owda posting a video pleading with us to do something, to not forget them, before it's too late. I can’t justify it. I have to share, I have to speak out, for the sake of my own humanity, for the sake of theirs.

Yesterday, The Journal published an interview with new first time Fianna Fáil TD Martin Daly of Roscommon-Galway, as part of a new series showcasing newly elected TDs. Presumably, the idea is to give these new TDs some media exposure and allow them to start slowly setting themselves apart in the minds of the public, while giving readers of political content something to engage with during the Dáil summer recess. The questions amount to how’re you getting on with it, and is it what you expected. Not quite Tommy Gorman & Roy Keane in Saipan, but interesting all the same for politics nerds like me.

Martin Daly is a practising GP, and his election poster slogan read “Putting People First”. He also said that “I was born into a Fianna Fáil family and anything alternative to that would have been considered heresy". When Martin Daly was asked about any lowlights of his new job, he answered “The plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza”.

When asked about the Occupied Territories Bill though, he said “My concern is that anything we do should be effective and should have culture-changing behaviour in terms of the Israelis, and that we should also be careful that we don’t injure our own prospects in terms of our industry and our employment”.

I urge you to read that last quote again.

The people of Palestine are being exterminated & ethnically cleansed using bombs, bullets, & starvation. They are being illegally invaded and expelled from their lands. They are being dehumanised and are victims of numerous war crimes.

Despite Ireland’s history of our own occupation, our own famine that was perpetuated due to the ideology of our oppressor, and our own dehumanisation, the Irish State continues to facilitate the validation of genocide bonds by the Irish Central Bank, it continues to allow Irish airspace to be used to transport arms, it continues to allow warplanes go uninspected at Shannon airport, and it continues to delay enacting the Occupied Territories Bill.

Martin Daly gives us an insight into why. It appears to be government policy now that the State should only take concrete action that will both change the culture of Israel, and also protect the Irish economy, the majority of which is propped up by American multinationals. Whether the government actually believe such a feat is possible, or that this is just another talking point to allow them to continue being complicit in a genocide, is a question for them. The Taoiseach defended prioritising the economy over mass murder as “like it’s putting bread and butter on people’s table”.

Perhaps Martin Daly was only trying to be a good back bencher and toe the party line, as if the topic was the same as any other political issue. Perhaps that’s even worse.

It appears some people can justify shielding themselves from the horror, and ignore that not only are they not helping stop it when in positions of power, but they are helping it continue, for the sake of the economy.