TODAY: Disrupt Complicity – Sanction Israel Now! Protest at The Dáil

 Press Release, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, 18th September

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organising a protest Today Thursday 18 September, 4.30pm – 6.30pm at the Dáil to demand that the Government end all complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestine people, apartheid, and illegal occupation of Palestine lands.        

Why? Palestinian civil society organisations - trade unions, human rights and civil society organisations, cultural and sporting organisations - have called for support to end complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people:

“In this most horrific phase of the genocide Palestinian civil society is united in reiterating the call on people of conscience worldwide to channel their immense grief and anger to cut the links of state, corporate and institutional complicity with this genocidal regime and with all the institutions and corporations that enable its crimes. The utmost moral obligation is first and foremost to do no harm, to end complicity.”

Speakers will include: Anas Abusour, Executive Director of Aida Youth Centre in West Bank,  Ghada Ashour, Genocide survivor,  Mary Lou McDonald TD, Leader of Sinn Fein, Ivana Bacik, TD, leader of the Labour Party, Paul Murphy TD, People Before Profit and participant in Gaza Sumud Flotilla, Paul McSweeney, Trade Union Friends of Palestine, Ken Powell, Dubs for Gaza, and Rebecca Heslin, Vice-Chairperson Dublin IPSC

IPSC Chairperson Zoe Lawlor said: “Today is the UN General Assembly's deadline for Israel to end its unlawful presence in Occupied Palestine. Instead genocide, apartheid and occupation continue with impunity. We are protesting to call on the Government to immediately enact the Occupied Territories Bill to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements; pass the Settlement Divestment Bill to ensure that no Irish taxpayers’ money is invested in entities that assist or profit from the occupation; pass the Arms Embargo Bill that will prevent Irish airspace and airports being used to transit weapons to Apartheid Israel; ban the export of all dual-use items to Israel; impose a ban on the import or purchase of any Israeli weaponry, military or security items, and security or surveillance tech; and stop the Central Bank from funding genocide through the off-shoring of the approval of Israeli genocide-funding bonds.”

"These are just some of the measures that can, and legally must, be taken in order to help end Israel’s ongoing two-year genocide in Gaza, to remove the impunity Israel has enjoyed for 77 years, to ensure accountability for crimes against the Palestinian people, and to secure Palestinians enjoy freedom, justice and equality in the future. "

ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy said: "The Irish public is horrified by Israel's genocide in Palestine. With the UN's deadline today, it's time for the Irish government to step up and represent the public's outrage. We saw South Africa treated as a pariah state during the apartheid era, we must now see the same for Israel. Trade Unions will join the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will protest at the Dáil from 4.30pm – 6.30pm to demand that the Government end all complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestine people, apartheid and illegal occupation of Palestine lands.”