A Letter from Ireland: We Travel in Hope
a Chara,
As I’m writing, a ceasefire in Gaza has been announced. The news has been met with relief by Palestinians across Gaza. The agreement signed by the Israeli negotiators has yet to be endorsed by their government. I hope the ceasefire holds and a viable Peace Process is built that delivers a lasting agreement for Palestinians and Israelis.
While no two conflicts are identical, we in Ireland know how fragile ceasefires can be. The IRA ceasefire of 1994 was met with relief and optimism. The ceasefire created an opportunity for the political process to develop. The British government of the time was beholden to Unionists to remain in power.
Despite almost thirty years of conflict, pro-British Unionists held to a belief that they could subjugate the Irish/Catholic minority by military means. The leader of the largest Unionist party, James Molyneaux, refused to welcome a ceasefire and instead described it as one of the most “destabilising events since partition”.
The British government failed to grasp the opportunity by prevaricating, erecting obstacles to political progress, and siding with the Unionists. In February 1996 the ceasefire ended and the conflict reignited.
It took a change of the British Government and intensive engagement with the American and Irish Governments to rebuild the ceasefire in July 1997. This would lead to the building of a political process, successful negotiations, and agreement.
In welcoming the news of the Gaza ceasefire, President Biden quoted Senator George Mitchell who chaired the Irish Peace talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement, “seven hundred days of failure and one day of success.”
On departing Belfast, Senator Mitchell also said that reaching the agreement was the easy part, implementing an agreement is the hard part. Implementation requires more successful days than failures. Martin McGuinness would remind us that the peace process is like a bike – it needs to keep moving forward or else it will fall over.
The campaign waged in Gaza has been recognized by the international courts for what it is: a genocide. While a ceasefire is a welcome relief, it cannot be just a pause in genocide.
The international community has a vital role to play in ensuring that international law is followed and any agreement is implemented or else there will be sanctions.
The Palestinian people have suffered terribly with up to one hundred thousand killed during the conflict, tens of thousands detained without trial, homes, hospitals, schools, and communities leveled.
The pain of the families of Israelis held hostages cannot be discarded.
It is now up to the international community to provide immediate aid, begin the process of reconstruction and reconciliation, apply the rule of international law, and ensure the opportunity of the ceasefire is fully realized and a peace process built.
There is further to travel, but we travel in hope.
Have a great weekend.
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
