The Israeli response to the October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad has been “merciless and disproportionate”, Ireland’s most senior Catholic figure, the Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, has said.
International humanitarian law holds that parties to a conflict cannot use disproportionate measures to achieve military objectives, he said in his new year message.
“The near-complete destruction of Gaza, and the bringing of its population to the brink of famine is, by any standard, a disproportionate measure.”
The archbishop, who has been Primate of All Ireland since 2014, said he was highlighting Gaza not only because of the severe impact of that war but because it was emblematic of the failure of the international community to prevent the escalation of conflict and protect civilians.
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This was despite rulings of the International Court of Justice on protection from genocide, on illegal occupation of territories, and on systemic discrimination.
“I am conscious that people who have expressed similar views to these have been accused of anti-Semitism.
“I wish to put it on record, once again, that I abhor the violations by Hamas and other Islamist militant groups against the people of Israel, and that I fully support the right of Israelis to live in peace and security.
“This right has to be achieved in the context of a just peace, where the legitimate rights of Palestinians are also protected in line with international law.”
Archbishop Martin said the 15 months since the October 7th attacks have seen more than 45,000 people, including 17,000 children, killed, two million people forcibly displaced, and almost the entire population of Gaza living in “extreme hunger” while humanitarian access was effectively blocked.
“How much humanity needs God’s mercy and forgiveness for inflicting the horrors and brutality of war across the world today – in Gaza and other parts of the Holy Land and Middle East; in Sudan, DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo], Yemen, Myanmar and Ukraine – sadly the list is long and shameful.”
He said the more than €2 trillion spent on armaments and military resources in 2023 could not be reconciled with the Christian commitment to reconciliation and peace, nor with secular principles of the common good and the flourishing of humanity.
“The use in war of more and more sophisticated and powerful weapons – especially in the midst of streets, homes, hospitals and schools – makes it difficult to distinguish so-called modern warfare from terror,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, has called for an immediate ceasefire and for the release of all hostages.
“Children, women and older people have borne the brunt of war in a way that most of us never expected or envisaged. My plea is that negotiations, which have suffered from the whiplash of start/stop, stop/start, be brought urgently to a compassionate and positive conclusion,” he said.
“The most recent news, direct from the Diocese of Jerusalem this morning, of more destruction of Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on December 29, combined with news of attacks on other hospitals and hospital personnel in Gaza in particular, fills us with alarm and grief.”
Dr Jackson said the creation and maintenance of the humanitarian corridor in Gaza “is essential to the provision of a humane 2025 in the whole region.
“In recent days I have been contacted by healthcare professionals in Ireland in the wake of the abduction of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyah, Medical Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. I stand with those who have contacted me and call on all leaders to raise their voices nationally and internationally to call for Dr Abu Safiyah’s release and demand that medical facilities, staff and patients are protected by all parties to this war, according to international law.”
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