A former IRA hunger striker and an ex-British soldier are set to take part in a 24-hour fast to raise funds for Palestinians impacted by the ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza.
Former enemies Laurence McKeown and Glenn Bradley are joining forces to help raise vital cash for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency through the Hunger For Justice Palestine event next month.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, including thousands of woman and children, since last October.
Despite international pressure Israel has refused to call a permanent ceasefire.
It launched the current campaign after around 1,200 people were killed during a Hamas-led attack inside Israeli territory last October, which resulted in around 200 hostages being taken.
The Hunger for Justice event is being organised in conjunction with Nenagh Friends Of Palestine.
Laurence McKeown spent 70 days without food as part of the 1981 hunger strike over the withdrawal of political status from republican prisoners.
In total of ten republicans died before the fast was eventually called off.
Mr McKeown said he and Mr Bradley have lived through conflict “and seen the damage it does to lives”.
“There is an understanding of conflict, that ability to move beyond that and then to witness under the pretense of self-defence when you are talking about bombing Syria, bombing Lebanon…there never was any excuse, it’s devastating,” he said.
Mr McKeown said it has significance when former “adversaries can come together in a common theme of peace and justice”.
The former hunger striker said the practice of fasting is particular to the Irish.
“I think in Ireland it resonates in our psyche from the Great Hunger, the Famine, the poverty that people lived in as well, we know the idea of hunger and fasting has a long tradition in Ireland as well through Catholicism,” he said.
“And even in Pagan times the whole when idea of fasting and giving up something for a greater good.”
A former British Soldier Belfast man Glenn Bradley was posted to the north during the Troubles.
He is involved with the Veterans for Peace Group, which has a “long standing principle that Palestinian lives matter”.
“Yet Palestinians are being systematically slaughtered before the eyes of the world,” Mr Bradley said.
“The ongoing US-UK-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza is unacceptable.”
“It is a stain on human history and it must be ended.”
Mr Bradley said Veterans for Peace has called for “a permanent ceasefire and most importantly an end to US and UK arms shipments to Israel”.
“We will not stand idly by while a campaign to wipe out an entire nation of diverse peoples goes on and so our support for Hunger For Justice flows from our stated aims and practices,” he said.
Organisers are trying to encourage 1,000 people across Ireland to participate in the fast or organise a vigil in their own area.
Anyone wishing to take part in the 24-hour fast ON December 12, or to make a donation, can do so by completing the short online form at: https://forms.gle/jxUXaL8dSWviYYAQ8
For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568421206188&locale=en_GB
