Today: Dublin Protest Rally - 'End US Support for Israel’s Genocide'

Photo/Video Opportunity: Demonstators will line street with 30m of red banners, symbolising US President Biden’s non-existent “red line” for Israel's genocidal actions in Gaza.

Press Release, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friday August 23rd

TOMORROW, SATURDAY, 24^th August, between 1pm and 2.30pm, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) will hold a demonstration at Barnardo Square on Dame Street (beside City Hall) in Dublin. 

Campaigners will assemble at 1.00pm at Barnardo Sq and will line the street with at least 30 metres of red banners in a highly visual protest that will appeal to photographers and videographers alike, to symbolise the non-existent “red line” that US President Biden promised would be crossed if the Israeli state attacked the tent encampments of Rafah where hundreds of thousands of refugees sought shelter.  Weeks later, Israel has crossed Biden’s red lines on numerous occasions without any action from the White House.

The IPSC will be:

– calling for an end to Apartheid Israel’s genocidal assault on the people of Gaza;

– calling for the US government to end their funding and facilitation of the ongoing genocide;

– calling for US multinational companies to end their complicity and profiteering from the genocide;

– calling for the Irish government to take concrete action at national, EU and UN levels to hold Israel accountable;

– and calling for an inspection regime to ensure that weapons or military tech are not being transported to Apartheid Israel via Irish airspace

Speakers at the rally will include former RTÉ producer Betty Purcell, Conall Ó Dufaigh of Teachers for Palestine, Harry Browne of Academics for Palestine, and Palestinian visual journalist Eman Mohammed. Music will be provided by rapper and artist Blue Niall and beatboxer and DJ Abood Aladham.

IPSC National Chairperson Zoë Lawlor said: “In March, US President Biden warned of a ‘red line’ if Israel attacked the refugee camps of Rafah. Israel proceeded to bomb the refugee camps, burning dozens of Palestinians alive, and destroyed hospitals and murdered medical staff. Millions face famine, and there are sickening reports of widespread torture in Israeli prisons. It is clear that there never was a ‘red line’.

"The US government continues to fund and facilitate a livestreamed genocide, and US multinational corporations continue to profit from it.  Despite Israel crossing many of Biden’s ‘red lines’, the US government continues its support for genocide by providing Israel with the arms and armaments with which they are slaughtering the Palestinian people - and we now know that Irish airspace is being used to transport these materials of death and destruction. 

"The US government also engages in farcical political theatre pretending that it wants a ceasefire in Gaza.  If the US government really wanted a ceasefire, it could enforce one tomorrow by ending its arming of, and economic and diplomatic support for, the genocidal Israeli state.”

Paris Olympics proved ignoring Covid is not a winner

 Today's article in the Indo: https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-it-hasnt-gone-away-you-know-paris-olympics-proved-ignoring-covid-is-not-a-winner/a1177172379.html

Huge thanks to my lovely, principled editor Tom Coogan 😇

Absolutely gutted that my original opening was cut though: ""Olympic dreams shattered", "Covid causing havoc", "Everyone's dropping like flies". Just some of the headlines from the 2024 “post Covid” Olympics” where the word “post” won linguistic gymnastics gold and reality (along with several athletes) collapsed at the first hurdle: Covid denialism". 

Extracts👇

"Five years into this pandemic, the evidence of harm is now irrefutable. Yet most people are unaware, for example, of the Lancet study published in June indicating brain abnormalities in survivors of Covid two years later and that “people recovering continue to experience cognitive, psychiatric, neurological symptoms and brain functional alterations”. Numerous studies have found that even “mild” SARS2 infections can cause or accelerate neurological degeneration. This has wide-ranging implications.

In May, pathologist Dr Margot Bolster reported that Covid-induced brain fog was likely a significant factor in a multi-car crash in Cork killing two in 2022. The driver, who veered onto the wrong side of the road, tested positive for Covid in the morgue. “There were all sorts of brain symptoms with it… it affected all organs of the body,” Dr Bolster said.

Last week, the WHO issued yet another warning: “Your health is precious. Protect yourself and loved ones from Covid: stay at home if sick. Test, get boosted, ventilate, mask around others.”

Again, this information was not shared. Instead, our governments are pathologising, and increasingly criminalising, those of us using proven tools to protect ourselves and our loved ones. As though being scientifically literate is an act of disobedience, punishable by state-sponsored stigma and ostracisation": 

"The Paris Olympics proved that pretending the pandemic is over only serves to prolong it, that everyone, including elite athletes, are vulnerable and that we can’t hand-wash our way out of an airborne pandemic.

We urgently need clean indoor air and sterilising vaccines. Until then, FFP3 masks are the most effective tool we’ve got to protect our precious health".