Direct action against Gaza genocide

Three Palestine solidarity activists were charged following a protest at Shannon Airport which saw the activists attempt to block US military planes.

Activists from the Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign (GPSC) said it had engaged in a “direct action” to mark Land Day on Saturday morning.

In an act of solidarity, the GPSC said that it confronted two US military planes at Shannon Airport. One of the aircraft was on its way back from the Middle East.

It said two of its members were among those detained when they approached the planes holding a Palestinian flag and a banner that said: ‘US military out of Shannon.’

The group’s co-chair, Áine Ní Threinír and co-treasurer Aindriú de Buitléir were among the group. The third person, Eimear Walshe, is not a member of the GPSC.

“There were two aircraft from the US military there this morning,” Rania Muhareb of the GPSC said.

“One of them had just come back from Lebanon, Cyprus and Egypt in the last two days, according to our information. And so they were protesting that as part of the Palestine solidarity movement, but also in line with a long tradition of Irish anti-war activism at Shannon,” she said.

The US military has used Shannon Airport as a stopover for planes travelling to and from places like Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.

The three activists were protesting against this ongoing use of the airport, particularly in the context of US military support for Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

GPSC demanded the activists’ immediate release.

“The countries that have been most outspoken, like Ireland, what have they done in practice? Nothing. And this is shameful. It is disgraceful,” the GPSC said.

“On Land Day, Palestinians are urging the global solidarity movement to escalate ‘strategic and effective direct actions’ with material effect on governments to end complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

Land Day is an annual commemoration of a protest held against Israeli plans to expropriate Palestinian land in 1976, during which six people were killed and more than 100 were injured.

“We refuse to be complicit in genocide,” the statement said.

“We demand that the Irish government immediately sanction and impose an arms embargo on Israel. Ireland must not allow US weapons to be sent through its airspace and must definitively end the US military’s use of Shannon Airport.”

Meanwhile, GAA members opposed to the ongoing bombardment of Gaza have held a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Dublin.

Gaels Against Genocide was set up by members of the Gaelic sports association to highlight the plight of the Palestinian people.

“The purpose of protesting at the Israeli embassy is to demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador immediately by the Irish government,” said organiser Michael Doherty.

He added that Gaels against Genocide also want to see an immediate ceasefire and “immediate withdrawal of all Israeli Forces from Gaza”.

He said there needs to be an “end to the deliberate starvation of the Gaza population” while “humanitarian aid” should be allowed into the area.

A separate protest took place outside Belfast City Hall “to remember the 32,000 plus Palestinians who have been murdered by Israeli forces in Gaza to date”.

Easter Rising commemorations around the country have also heard strong expressions of support for the Palestinian people and calls for an end to the genocide there.

Around 32,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children, have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since last October. The UN Security Council has said a ‘famine’ – a deliberate starvation – has begun in some parts of the region.

Israeli efforts to prevent food aid reaching the starving Palestinians saw it attack a convoy of humanitarian vehicles this week, killing seven international aid workers, including three British security staff.

The Irish government has said it would be formally moving towards joining the genocide case against Israel at the Hague.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Matt Carthy TD, has said that the Irish intervention must be “a meaningful declaration” that Israel is in breach of the convention.

He noted that the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, had accused the Dublin government of failing to match its rhetoric with concrete actions that would hold Israel accountable for its crimes.

“The intervention to the International Court of Justice should be just only of a suite of measures taken by government to hold Israel accountable for its crimes,” he said.

“Sinn Féin have brought forward a series of proposals to this end but government have failed to act in each instance.”

“The time in which the government can employ a strong rhetorical approach without meaningful actions against the Israeli state in response to its blatant breaches of human rights and international law is gone.

“Every diplomatic, economic and political measure at our disposal must now be utilised to sanction Israel for its blatant, cruel and cowardly disregard for international law and the basic rules of humanity.”

Urgent Appeal