It is not often that the voice of the little man (or woman) is heard in political circles, more often than not, we shout, cry out and pray that we will be heard, Yet somehow it appears that our voices cannot reach the ears of those whom we elect to represent us.
This very evening in Waterford City, on the south east coast of Ireland, there was a strange atmosphere about, we gathered outside city hall, It was a beautifully mild evening and those gathered could be seen clearly sporting their "Boycott Israeli Goods" T-shirts, however it was extremely hard to describe the mood at that time, there was tension, hope, expectation or indeed maybe an element of fear among those gathered.
Waterford IPSC, (Waterford branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign) had lobbied long and hard, very hard, to get an official statement from the Politicians of Waterford city, calling for the Israeli Ambassador to be expelled from Ireland. We stood firmly together, there were people of differing religion, differing skin colour and differing accents, Yet we stood together as one. Of course we wondered if we had done enough to win this vote, whilst at the same time children were proudly holding the Irish and Palestinian flags, whilst playing together in innocence, as only children can.
We greeted the Politicians as they arrived, requesting their support, shaking their hands and nervously hoping not to say anything that might be perceived as offensive to their individual parties. We were aware very early on that day, that we had the full support of several of the Politicians, our collective task now was to try to convince the undecided amongst them to vote in our favour. You learn very quickly that politicians (NOT ALL BUT SOME) say what they think you want to hear, I believe its called Lip Service, Our collective worry was that Lip Service would be paid (so to speak) to us, then another course of action would be taken inside city hall.
One of our Palestinian members spoke to both the crowd assembled and the Politicians arriving, giving a very eloquent and well described account of living in Gaza and greater Palestine, after the speech it could be seen plainly that some began to almost tremble with expectation of the events to come, just at the very moment the politicians began to enter the annals of city hall to take their seats.
The Lord Mayor of Waterford along with politicians from the Sinn Fein Party, Labour Party and the Workers Party (Irish Political Parties) had already given their collective assurance that they would be voting in favour of removing the Israeli Ambassador from Ireland. The stage was now set, so to speak, the politicians had entered city hall and taken their places, however because of our numbers outside, there was simply not enough room for everybody to enter the chambers. One of the IPSC leaders stepped forward proposing that four should go in, and the rest would hold vigil outside, He then took the decision to send in one female Irish member of the group, who was given the instruction to keep in contact with the rest outside, via phone text messages. Then there were three more chosen, all three were to be Palestinian members of the group who currently reside in Waterford City. He apologized for the fact that we could not all enter and stated, whatever the outcome of the vote, there should be Palestinians present to witness the affair.
Time passed slowly, then the first text message arrived, it simply read "Nothing Yet", all about us held their collective breath in anticipation. Another 1/2 hour went slowly by and a second text message arrived, it read: Vote Beginning", you could almost cut the atmosphere among the crowd gathered outside. The word that the Vote had begun made its way to all of the people outside. At that very moment you could have literally heard a pin drop on the concrete beneath our feet, more time passed and the general conversations began again, It was both interesting and topical, yet talk of the World Cup, the current recession or when the next flotilla might be, would be cut off sharply on the sound of a text message arriving. Moments later a mobile / cell phone beeped loudly, as though to declare to all present its importance. Sure enough it was a text message, but a private one, nothing to do with the expected and eagerly awaited message from within City hall. The people gathered, unanimously and without word nor direction, decided to collectively switch off their phones, it became clear that any distraction at that point in time, would be an unwelcome one.
A further ten minutes passed and finally the only mobile / cell phone still switched on began to proudly beep at us, there was a moment or two of complete silence, the the words "It has been voted in our favour", still the crowd assembled were silent, as though almost in some sort of trance, children looked to their parents for answers, all of a sudden one little boy stepped forward with a smile so broad that the edges of his lips almost looked like they were touching his ears. As loud as he could, he screamed "WE DID IT" and again "WE DID IT", there was a huge sigh of relief followed by and incredible outburst of emotion and a equally huge scream of success. Strangers kissed each other and congratulated each other, Hands were shook, victory signs waved, people hugged each other so hard that it momentarily robbed you of the air collected between kisses and shouts of celebration.
About another 1/2 hour passed and the first of the four IPSC members began exiting via the large doors of city hall, It was one of the Palestinian men, he leaped forward to to embrace one of the leaders, and all present could see the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks, his only words were "I am very happy", within moments men and women were drying their eyes with the back of their hands, The men among us claiming that something entered their eyes or that they may be getting hay fever, but we all knew, every man. woman and child knew that this was a very special moment, Next the doors of city hall re-open and out come two more Palestinian men to great applause and finally the hero of the situation, the young Irish girl would kept us all aware of what was going on, via her text messages..
One man in the crowd asked: "can one man make a difference in a world of many? " the answer lay with one of the IPSC ladies present, "YES, she said, "If the cause is a JUST one", she then continued: "and by God the plight of the Palestinian People, is a JUST cause!" On hearing those words the celebration began again.
It has taken a while, for what we had achieved to truly sink in, the taking part and just being there, seemed almost reward enough, but this was followed by the realization of what had been achieved.
Today, Monday 14th of June 2010, Waterford IPSC and their supporters have managed to get full support from politicians from ALL parties in the city of Waterford, To officially call on the government of Ireland to expel the Israeli Ambassador. Furthermore, the majority of politicians present, outside after the meeting gave their support to our call to Boycott Israeli Goods in Ireland.
