Those who want peace in the Hamas-Israeli conflict need support, the UN’s John Ging tells MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

THE CONFLICT in the Middle East should be “depoliticised and rehumanised” and effective mechanisms for accountability on both sides need to be put in place, the Irish director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) operations in Gaza has said on a visit to Dublin.

John Ging also repeated UNRWA calls for the Israeli blockade on Gaza to be lifted so that reconstruction efforts could begin in earnest following the Israeli military offensive on the territory earlier this year which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians. He said rocket attacks on Israel must cease, and Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held in Gaza since his capture by Palestinian militants in 2006, must be released. “Both sides have to live up to their responsibilities,” he argued.

“I know there are sufficient people on both sides who are committed to legal and political processes . . . but they need help,” he said.

“The situation is very bleak and the prospects are even bleaker if we stay on the same course.”

Mr Ging met Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin yesterday before briefing the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs on the current situation in Gaza. He later gave the annual Trócaire lecture at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he spoke on the responsibility to protect civilians during conflict.

Mr Ging became a regular fixture in the international media during the January conflict in Gaza, providing regular on-the-ground updates on the worsening humanitarian situation there as Israel stepped up its aerial bombardment and fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas intensified.

“What can we do to protect civilians during conflict? We can do a lot better and Gaza is a case in point,” he said last night. “We have to find ways to ensure there is not a repeat.”

Echoing the words of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in the wake of the Gaza conflict, Mr Ging said the conflagration had been “the product of collective political failure”. Too much attention had been paid to political rhetoric, and not enough to the consequences of the conflict, he said. “We cannot wait for political solutions to kick-start development in Gaza.”

During a wide-ranging discussion with TDs and Senators at the Oireachtas committee meeting, Mr Ging talked about the fallout from the January violence, the effects of the continuing Israeli blockade on Gaza, and the internal dynamics of the Hamas-controlled territory.

The Israeli blockade was preventing the “restoration of a dignified existence” for Gazans, he said. “People languish in the rubble of their despair . . . the most immediate need is access. It is the key to everything,” Mr Ging added, drawing particular attention to the plight of young Palestinians living in Gaza who are prevented from leaving the territory to take up scholarships and pursue other educational opportunities. “Without access there is no positive prospect for the future.”

He outlined UNRWA’s work in Gaza, from projects aimed at addressing immediate humanitarian needs to programmes focused on human development. The latter is crucial in terms of ensuring Gaza’s large population of young people mitigate the effects of the environment in which they live, he said, adding that the threat of growing extremism is very real. “The decent parents of Gaza are really worried about what is happening to their children.”

Mr Ging said that in his experience, most ordinary Palestinians are opposed to indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel. “That is the tragedy of it. It’s the people who don’t support the rocket fire that are suffering, not those who are actually firing the rockets.”

Turning to Hamas, he said there needed to be an “unequivocal end to violence” by the organisation and acceptance of the conditions laid down by the Quartet comprising the EU, US, UN and Russia. Responding to Senator Mark Daly, who asked if the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which gives Israel preferential trade terms with EU member states, should be used as leverage to pressure Israel, Mr Ging said what was needed in terms of the Middle East conflict was “conditionality of friendship”.

“Both sides need friends who tell them the truth about their actions, and put conditions on their friendship,” he added.

Several members of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs called for a comprehensive international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed during the conflict in Gaza.

Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin paid tribute to the role Mr Ging played in highlighting the human cost of the violence in Gaza, and the continuing humanitarian crisis there. “Your advocacy was effective – you helped to show the world what was really happening; its costs in human terms; its cost in material terms; its cost in reinforcing bitterness and hatred. In other words; its utter futility.”

John Ging: Bringing help to the people of the Strip

John Ging was appointed director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip in 2006.



He took up the post five days after Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian elections. His job involves overseeing UNRWA’s development programmes in the territory as well as directing the provision of humanitarian supplies to 750,000 refugees.



From Portlaoise, Mr Ging joined the Defence Forces in 1983 and went on to serve in peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.



He later worked for Goal as regional director for Rwanda, Zaire and Tanzania in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.



He was subsequently seconded by the Defence Forces to the OSCE mission for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997, where he served until his appointment with UNRWA.