Thursday, July 31, 2014 from Gaza Action Ireland
Gaza protesters march through Grafton Street
HUNDREDS of protesters, chanting “Boycott Israel”, noisily marched the length of Dublin’s Grafton Street this evening [[THURS]] on their way to a ‘die-in’ at Leinster House to oppose the Irish Government’s inaction over Gaza.
Up to 500 people had earlier heard speeches from doctors and members of the Palestinian community outside the Department of Foreign Affairs on St Stephen’s Green.
The doctors called on the Irish Government to take a firm stand against Israeli attacks on medical workers, hospitals and ambulances in Gaza.
Gaza protesters march through Grafton Street
HUNDREDS of protesters, chanting “Boycott Israel”, noisily marched the length of Dublin’s Grafton Street this evening [[THURS]] on their way to a ‘die-in’ at Leinster House to oppose the Irish Government’s inaction over Gaza.
Up to 500 people had earlier heard speeches from doctors and members of the Palestinian community outside the Department of Foreign Affairs on St Stephen’s Green.
The doctors called on the Irish Government to take a firm stand against Israeli attacks on medical workers, hospitals and ambulances in Gaza.
Israel’s increasingly savage assault on Gaza has seen 1,400 people killed in just over three weeks, with many thousands wounded and close to 200,000 displaced. The UN reports that its relief operations are close to breaking point, and Israel has repeatedly targeted schools that were being used as shelter for people with nowhere else to hide.
At Leinster House there were further speeches and hundreds of protesters lay down as if dead, holding sheets of people bearing the names of those killed in Gaza, while part of a list of the victims was read aloud.
Nyssan Deeb, a Palestinian who lives in Dublin, said the daily litany of horrors from Gaza was heartbreaking. “I look at the pictures of children and I see my own child,” she said.
At Leinster House there were further speeches and hundreds of protesters lay down as if dead, holding sheets of people bearing the names of those killed in Gaza, while part of a list of the victims was read aloud.
Nyssan Deeb, a Palestinian who lives in Dublin, said the daily litany of horrors from Gaza was heartbreaking. “I look at the pictures of children and I see my own child,” she said.
“When Charlie Flanagan went to the Seanad today and spoke mealy-mouthed words of half-hearted, allegedly balanced condemnation, he wasn’t speaking for the Irish people, who know the difference between the occupier and the occupied, between the oppressor and the oppressed,” Gaza Action Ireland (GAI) member and journalist Harry Browne said.
“Israeli war crimes in Gaza, and the long occupation that lies behind those crimes, are enabled by western governments like our own. Its military research is funded by the EU, sometimes with Irish partners. Its products are in our shops,” he said.
“We share the responsibility for Israel’s actions, and with tools like the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions, we potentially have the leverage to help stop them,” Browne added.
This evening’s demonstration was called by GAI, with the support of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sadaka and the Palestinian community in Ireland.
“Israeli war crimes in Gaza, and the long occupation that lies behind those crimes, are enabled by western governments like our own. Its military research is funded by the EU, sometimes with Irish partners. Its products are in our shops,” he said.
“We share the responsibility for Israel’s actions, and with tools like the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions, we potentially have the leverage to help stop them,” Browne added.
This evening’s demonstration was called by GAI, with the support of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sadaka and the Palestinian community in Ireland.