Demonstration urges new Irish Government to sanction Israel
Protesters marched to Leinster House for a rally on Saturday afternoon.
The new Irish Government has been urged to place sanctions on Israel.
Crowds took to the streets of Dublin days after the new coalition administration was made official.
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) led the gathering from the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square across the city centre to Leinster House, where the Government sits, for a rally.
The march also condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Senator Alice-Mary Higgins said all the marches and actions in Ireland in solidarity send a strong message to the Government that “words are not enough”.
She called for action from the Government, including not allowing Israel to use Irish airspace to transport weapons.
IPSC chairperson Zoe Lawlor welcomed the “fragile ceasefire in place in Gaza”, but voiced her concern over how many Palestinians have been killed and conditions for those who remain there.
“Western governments have allowed this to happen – whether by actively facilitating Apartheid Israel’s brutal onslaught, or by doing absolutely nothing to stop it,” she said.
“Ireland is a case in point; before even taking office, the new Government is already bowing to pressure from the Trump regime and vowing to sideline the Occupied Territories Bill, while endorsing the viciously anti-Palestinian and free speech curbing IRHA ‘definition’ of antisemitism, opposed by human rights organisations around the world, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
“This cannot be allowed to happen – we need to tell the new Government that instead of betrayals, backsliding and cowardice in the face of the US empire’s threats, we want the Occupied Territories Bill, the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill, and the Arms Embargo Bill passed, an end to the use of Irish airports and airspace to transfer weapons, we want Israel kicked out of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the breaking of diplomatic relations, and we want to ditch the anti-Palestinian IHRA so-called working definition of antisemitism.”
