Peace campaigners in Orkney will meet in vigil on the Kirk Green, Broad Street, Kirkwall, between 1 and 2pm on Saturday 14 March.
“The developments of the last two weeks are further confirmation that we’re living in a time of brutality, impunity and indifference. The rules-based scaffolding meant to restrain the worst excesses of war is cracking. Human ingenuity is being applied to find ever more sinister ways to kill at scale, while civilians are subjected to ever more abject violence.” – Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Since the end of October 2023, the islanders have been calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
Now that the US/Israel War of Choice has ignited destruction across many countries in the region, with thousands dead and injured, and with disastrous consequences for the global economy – the campaigners in Orkney are determined that the Genocide in Gaza and the increased settler violence in The West Bank, are not forgotten about.
On Saturday 28 March, Brendan Stephens will be giving a talk ‘Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank: Reports from the Front Line’, in the St Magnus Centre from approx. 8pm.
The event is organised jointly by Amnesty International Orkney and Orkney Friends of Palestine. There’s also a ‘Bring and Share Supper’, from 6.30pm prior to the talk.
United Nations News has published the following report, 13 March:
The UN relief coordination office, OCHA, reports that nearly all humanitarian movements to the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing were denied in the past 24 hours, preventing most aid from entering Gaza.
While UN teams were able to collect fuel, other critical supplies remain stuck at the crossing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this includes nearly 50 intensive care beds and 170 pallets of medicines.
Kerem Shalom is currently the only operational entry point into Gaza, as the Rafah and Zikim crossings remain closed.
The mounting casualties in the whole region since the US/Israel War of Choice was launched includes, US service personnel, with 11 dead , and over 150 injured. A war with no end in sight. In a war where the UK Defence Secretary has accused Russia of being involved with aiding Iran, the Trump administration is also easing restrictions on buying oil from Russia.
CBS News reported:
The U.S. is temporarily greenlighting the purchase of Russian oil that’s already at sea, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday, in the Trump administration’s latest move to loosen the wartime sanctions that restrict Russia’s oil industry as the world grapples with high oil prices.
The same Russia that illegally invaded the independent nation of Ukraine and is killing its citizens. Russian casualties (killed, wounded and missing) have been estimated at over 1.2million, Ukraine’s at 55,000 killed, 70,000 missing.
The same Russian/Ukraine war that President of the US Donald J. Trump said he could end in 1 day. Instead he has now embarked on a War of Choice against Iran, with Israel attacking Lebanon, with no end game, except to buy Russian oil.
Multiple airstrikes, shelling, and gunfire resulting in casualties continues across Gaza. Palestinians have been shot dead beside their homes in The West Bank, as illegal settlers descend on their communities.
Three Palestinians died because of settler violence on 7 March: one was shot dead by Israeli settlers in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, and two were shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the Abu Falah community, near Ramallah. Another Palestinian died from complications related to tear gas inhalation in Abu Falah during a subsequent operation by Israeli forces. UNRWA Situation Report 212
The Peace campaigners welcome all to their vigil who want to see the end to this madness, and a de-escalation of the humanitarian crisis created by the US/Israel War of Choice so that Trump’s involvement and his close friendship with the convicted sex trafficker and paedophile Jeffery Epstein is not the headline news.
Documented by The Orkney News, and filmed by Mike Robertson, films of the Vigils in Orkney are free to view on YouTube. Here is the latest:
Fiona Grahame