Hunger Striker Protesting a Crime Against Humanity

The Irish and the Palestinians share a history of occupation and oppression.

Photo: Adele King

(DUBLIN) - Terence Barry says ‘we have a song here in Ireland called Only Our Rivers Run Free, but in Palestine the Israelis have even stolen the water supplies. In Palestine not even their Rivers Run Free.’ This week, Terence Barry said he wants his hunger strike ‘to highlight the Israeli genocide on the people of Gaza.’

In solidarity with Terence's hunger strike for Palestine by Adele King.

The revolutionary spirit of freedom beats strong in Irish hearts. Hunger striker Bobby Sands is not forgotten, and his death casts a long shadow.

In Dublin, thirty nine year old Irishman, Terence Barry is on hunger strike outside the Israeli Embassy in Ireland's fashionable Dublin 4 district. Terence, an activist for 23 years, says: ‘I took this action to let people know what is really going on in Palestine. The media is a massive propaganda tool for the Israeli and US agenda. In fact the western media has turned its back on the meaning of journalism to seek out the truth and inform the world.' Journalism is supposed to monitor the establishment, but the irony is that journalism, more often than not, has become propaganda spun by the establishment.

While the Tipperary man, Terence Barry, is in Dublin ‘protesting a crime against humanity’ outside the Israeli embassy, the Palestinians are turning to the UN after years of intermittent, and inconclusive, peace talks with Israel. The United States is trying to persuade the Palestinians to drop their bid for United Nations approval of their independent statehood. The U.S. wants the Palestinians to resume peace talks with Israel, as 140 countries are expected to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. The United States is expected to veto the membership if, and when, it gets to the Security Council. Palestinians may ask the General Assembly to upgrade their status from non-member "entity" to non-member ‘state.’

Bobby Sands, age 22 [c. 1975]

Gaining de facto statehood recognition from the General Assembly could allow Palestinians to join key U.N. institutions, such as the International Criminal Court.

The Irish and the Palestinians share a history of occupation and oppression. Bobby Sands, an Irish freedom seeker who died on hunger strike, wrote a ninety-six verse poem in 1980. His lines could have been written by any of the thousands of Palestinians, including Palestinian children, languishing in Israeli prisons today.

In his poem, The Crime of Castlereagh, Bobby Sands wrote:

They tortured me quite viciously

The days expired and no one tired,

They threw me through the air.

It got so bad it seemed I had

Terence Barry on Hungerstrike by Adele King

Been beat beyond repair.

Except of course the prey,

And they knew well that time would tell

Each dirty trick they laid on thick

For no one heard or saw.

While the Palestinians wonder how the U.S. could explain a veto at the United Nations, and in light of Israel’s unpunished transgressions, it brings to mind the words of George Orwell, ‘Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’ 
                           

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