Peace campaigners in Orkney will be holding their vigil for Gaza today, 17 May between 1 and 2pm on the Kirk Green, Broad street, Kirkwall.

Whilst Yuval Raphael performed a “New Day Will Rise” for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest, the Apartheid state continued its relentless bombing of hospitals and makeshift tented shelters in Gaza.

UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder released a statement on Friday 16 after the latest killings of over 45 children. He said:

“Children in the Gaza Strip are facing relentless bombardments while being deprived of essential goods, services and lifesaving care since the beginning of the conflict.

“For the past two months, the situation has further deteriorated, due to the imposed blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“The threats to children’s lives go beyond bombs and bullets. The living conditions too, threaten their survival. With each passing day of the aid blockade, they face the growing risk of famine, illness, and death.

“Nineteen months into this conflict, children have suffered violence without relent, including indiscriminate attacks. They have suffered multiple months-long blockades, denying them of essential food, water, and health supplies.

“They have suffered repeated displacements – being forced to relocate again and again, in search of safety and shelter. They have suffered in ways unimaginable. Their scars will endure a lifetime.”

Those pleas fall on deaf ears as Israel enjoys the support of the USA, and other Western powers including the UK.

The UK government approved $169m worth of military equipment to Israel in the three months that followed the Labour government’s partial suspension of arms exports over concerns they could be used unlawfully in Gaza. 

Export data released on Thursday shows that 20 different licences in categories such as military aircraft, radars, targeting equipment, and explosive devices, were approved between October and December 2024. – Middle East Eye

It is now over  10 weeks since Israel stopped all food, fuel, medicines and more from reaching Gaza.  9,000 truckloads of essential supplies including food is stuck at the border, prevented from getting to the starving population by Israel.

Israel has said that the Aid lorries contain items which will be used by Hamas to attack them. The lorries contain:

• educational supplies
• children’s bags
• shoes, size three to four years old and up to 10 years old;
• stationery and toys
• rice
• wheat flour
• beans
• eggs
• pasta
• various sweets
• tents
• water tanks
• cold storage boxes
• breastfeeding kits
• breastmilk substitutes
• energy biscuits
• shampoo and hand soap
• floor cleaner

Not parts for military equipment – that’s what Israel is being sent from the UK Labour Government.

There are  over 10,000 patients , 4,500 of them children, who need urgent medical attention outside Gaza because there are simply no facilities left to deal with their profound needs.

The European General Hospital in Khan Younis, which was used as an evacuation centre, was attacked.

The UN’s top aid official Tom Fletcher called for immediate international pressure to stop Gaza’s “21st century atrocity”. UN human rights Chief Volker Türk added  that recent actions taken by Israel in Gaza – specifically Israeli strikes on hospitals and the continued denial of humanitarian aid – are “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”

Meanwhile, as the Gaza Genocide continues, Yuval Raphael will perform in Basel at the Eurovision final on Saturday night, as if nothing genocidal is being committed by the country she represents. More than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed an open letter demanding that Israel’s public broadcaster KAN be banned from the contest, alleging that it was “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”. A call that has been ignored.

The Orkney Islanders will continue to hold their vigils for Gaza until there is a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid is delivered to the starving of Gaza. A demonstration of activism never seen in the islands before.

Fiona Grahame