A protest has been held outside Ireland’s houses of parliament to call for an immediate end to the killing of people in Gaza.
The demonstration was organised in response to a US delegation visiting the Irish parliamentary building, Leinster House, on Friday.
Protesters criticised the US for continuing to arm Israel and called for the killing of civilians in Gaza to stop.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 11 months since the October attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, said this week there was now a risk of a polio outbreak due to the collapse of the region’s health services and a confirmed case in a 10-month-old child.
At the protest outside the gates to Leinster House on Dublin’s Merrion Street, people held signs with the slogans “Stop the genocide” and “Genocide Joe”, referring to US President Joe Biden and the US continuing to support Israel.
People carried signs reading “I’m a mother, not a target” and “I’m a child, not a target” and two protesters wore masks featuring the faces of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Biden.
At the Kildare Street end, a larger demonstration was held to the beat of drums, with people chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “Occupation no more” while waving Palestinian flags.
“We’re in the middle of the worst genocide that the world has seen in many decades and if the US weren’t funding Israel it would come to an end,” she said of the destruction in Gaza.
She said when she heard nothing back, she told the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Mothers Against Genocide who organised the protest on Friday.
She said she understands that the protest will continue until the delegation leaves Leinster House.
“It’s not a mass protest like I’ve seen in Ireland on the question of Palestine, it’s not of that size, but it is a very young and very loud and very vibrant protest,” she said.
“People are disgusted and raging that the Dail chamber was used in this way,” she said, adding that although it has happened before, it was now in the context of Israel depending on the US.
She added: “On the boycott (of Israeli goods), I was involved in the anti-apartheid movement in the 80s, and it didn’t happen overnight that the apartheid state was brought down in South Africa.
“It took many years of the South African people fighting back but also global solidarity.
“I think people feel very dispirited and hopeless about what’s going on in Gaza but actually the boycott movement is very, very important.”
