Editorial: Chorus of calls for ceasefire must no longer be ignored

Taoiseach Simon Harris could scarcely hide his ­exasperation as he stressed that Europe could be doing a “hell of a lot more” to exert pressure on Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza. He made his remarks on the day Ireland recognised the Palestinian state.

With tens of thousands of civilians now dead, it is time to realise that every new day of killing represents a day of failure. The world owes it to the displaced people of Gaza not to squander a single moment in the search to find a solution to stop the cycles of needless death.

“If everybody says they want to see a cessation of violence – the United States says it, the European Union says it – it’s not enough to just say it,” Mr Harris stressed. “We have to challenge ourselves – what more can we do to make it effective?”

He was equally right to say the global steps to date have been “ineffective”.

With children and their parents fleeing to places of alleged safety, they repeatedly “found themselves bombed in that location”, Mr Harris said.

Writer Arthur C Clarke once remarked that there is a hopeful symbolism in the fact flags do not flap in a vacuum. Let us hope the Palestinian flag that flew as representative of a state over our capital for the first time yesterday will have more than symbolic status.

All people have a special respect for their hearthstones and their heartland. It is absurd to believe that because such claims have not been recognised or have been surpressed, they do not exist.

No people anywhere in the world would meekly accept being expelled en masse from their own country.

Ireland, like Norway and Spain, has recognised Palestinian statehood, not in the immediate expectation that it will in itself stop the carnage, but that it can accelerate momentum to achieve a ceasefire.

Peace in Palestine is achievable. The question is how to harness the will to make it happen as soon as possible.

We have seen hunger being weaponised and aid being cut off, deprivations deplored by all who support human rights.

As Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said, simply recognising Palestine is not enough. He praised the dedication that Tánaiste Micheál Martin has shown on the issue, but he also said there was one man with unparalleled influence to bring the disaster in Gaza to an end.

“His name is Joe Biden, and he has to do better,” he insisted.

Washington cannot, in good conscience, stand over what is happening in the stricken enclave, ignoring the international outcry. It is not morally sustainable to ignore the case for a ceasefire.