Police clampdown on Palestine protests

Both the Six and 26 County statelets have resorted to violence to suppress protests over the Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon.

In Belfast, the PSNI police attacked students who attempted to unfurl a large Palestinian flag in the grounds of the university during a visit by former US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Three students were arrested in assaults by ‘robocop’ riot police, injuring a number of students. A fourth man was released.

Scores of students had gathered for a sit-in outside the main university in Belfast. Protesters chanted “shame” while some displayed a large image of Mrs Clinton, a key US supporter for of the genocide, with blood on her hands.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, including tens of thousands of woman and children, since last October. Despite international pressure Israel has refused to call a ceasefire.

Thursday’s protest was organised by the QUB Palestine Assembly, an umbrella group for students and staff.

Ewan McClelland, who was at the protest, said it was a peaceful demonstration to Hillary Clinton being on our campus.

“We were rightfully protesting on our own campus, which we as students pay money to go to and the police initiated all of the aggression,” he said.

“If you look at the footage we are standing there or we are just moving about.”

“We were unarmed activists and these were heavily trained police officers in protective gear who had batons and guns.”

Republicans later gathered outside the heavily fortified Musgrave PSNI Barracks in Belfast, where the pro-Palestine activists were being held, to demand their release.

Lawyers for the students have now made a complaint to the Police Ombudsman, In a letter to the Ombudsman, lawyer Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, said his clients entered an area that was not cordoned off by police with the intention of unfurling a Palestinian flag.

Mr Mackin said two of his clients were “singled out and apprehended...down to the fact they bore, and attempted to unveil, a Palestinian flag”.

The lawyer condemned the arrests and “the actions by the PSNI officers both on media and social media footage”.

Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Delargy also expressed concern and said the images were “extremely disturbing and need to be fully and properly examined.

“Those protesting were doing so to highlight genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation in Gaza. The right to peaceful protest must be protected. I will be asking our members of the policing board to raise this with the PSNI to ensure there is full scrutiny and accountability.”

Meanwhile, eight protestors were arrested and charged in a similarly heavy-handed police response to protest against the US military use of Shannon airport.

Wexford general election hopeful Mick Wallace criticised the behaviour of the gardaí, which follows a similiar ‘Descend on Shannon’ protest last month.

The former MEP and election candidate attended the protest on Sunday, joining Palestine solidarity groupa from Clare, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Kerry.

He accused Gardai of using “violent force” in removing protestors from the airport.

“The normal uniformed gardaí were absolutely fine,” he said, but he claimed that some members of the Public Order Unit were “extremely aggressive” and he saw no reason for it. “It was really disappointing to see,” he said.

“There were over a thousand people there and none of them, as far as I could see, were looking for trouble,” he said. “There’s a protest at Shannon every second week and there’s never trouble.

“These were decent people from all over the country who are just shocked by the genocide that’s being carried out in front of our eyes. Simon Harris and Micheál Martin won’t call it that, but that’s exactly what it is.”

The topic of Gaza and the actions of the Israeli state there has arisen at several points during the general election campaign. A Sinn Fein election promise to review the output on the Middle East of the state broadcaster, RTE, drew an agitated response from Taoiseach Simon Harris, who described it as “chilling”, but failed to explain why.

And at the first leaders debate, despite having not done so to date, the government parties promised to enact the Occupied Territories Bill to limit trade with illegal Israeli settlements, should they be returned.

Mr Wallace believes that the outgoing coalition government has done nothing on Palestine and they will do nothing should they be returned.

“It’s all just election talk,” he claimed. “They blocked the Occupied Territories Bill for years. They will never, ever, bring that in. Our government has said nice things about Palestinian people. That’s it.

“We’re still complicit in selling weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians. Why are we still trading with Israel if we’re so worried about it? Not one EU state has stopped trading with them.

“The Irish government is good at talking on Palestine, but doing nothing. That much was stated by the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese, who basically said in relation to Ireland that all the talk means nothing until you actually do something.”

Regardless, Mr Wallace feels that a commitment not to trade with occupied territories would be of miniscule comfort given continued US military use of Shannon airport.

“Israel couldn’t carry out this genocide without the help of the US,” he says. “It’s effectively an arm of the US in the Middle East. In Ireland, we are allowing the US to use Shannon to go over and kill Muslims and destroy the lives of millions of people. Our government has allowed that to happen.

“If we do get a different government in this country after this election, they will have a huge responsibility to stop allowing Shannon to be used as a US military base.”

Urgent Appeal