Dear Editor,
Christmas should be a time for peace and celebration in the Holy Land and in the wider Middle East, for Christians, Jews and Muslims, and for all those who believe in humanitarian principles and the proper rule of international laws. This 2024 Christmas holiday season sees large areas of Gaza, Lebanon and Syria in ruins with hundreds of thousands dead and injured.
War crimes amounting to genocide have been committed with impunity by Israel supported by the US and its allies. International laws have been and are still being grossly violated. Large areas of the state of Syria are now occupied by Turkey, United States, Israel, and various rebel groups, including Kurdish forces and by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS are being described as liberators despite their previous close associations with Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, and their peoples have also been devastated by wars waged for resources in breach of the UN Charter.
US dominated NATO, that now includes 24 of the European Union’s 27 member states, should have been disbanded at the end of the Cold War, but is now arguably being misused as the equivalent of a global criminal gang enforcer. All these wars are causing colossal damage to our global environment and increasing the risk of nuclear war. International peace and global justice were never more important, but sadly never more threatened than they are at Christmas 2024.
Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick.
