SEVERAL THOUSAND PEOPLE have attended demonstrations in cities and towns around Ireland this afternoon in support of the people in Gaza.
An estimated 3,000 people marched from the Spire in Dublin city centre to the Israel embassy in Ballsbridge.
TDs Clare Daly (Ind), Joan Collins (United Left), and Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin) all held the banner at the front of the march, alongside members of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Some protesters held signs calling for embargos and sanctions against Israel. Others had banners critical of Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan after Ireland’s abstention on a UN vote to hold an inquiry into possible war crimes by Israel.
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“Ireland’s position is absolutely appalling,” Freda Hughes, one of the organisers, told TheJournal.ie. “Abstaining from that vote was not a reflection of the will of the people”.
“In most major towns and cities across the country, people are really annoyed by what they’re seeing”.
“People who weren’t already pro-Palestinian are coming out over this because it’s a human rights issue. A huge proportion of the people who are being killed are Palestinian civilians”.
“People are outraged and disgusted, and to abstain from a vote which was only calling for an investigation into possible war crimes is appalling and does not reflect the Irish people”.
The demonstrations came on the day that the death toll rose to over 1,000 since Israel’s onslaught on the territory began 18 days ago.
It is the third week in a row that protests for Gaza have been held around the country.
Israel is reported to have agreed a four-hour extension to the current ongoing 12-hour ceasefire which has been in place since this morning, which would see a truce lasting until midnight tonight local time (9pm GMT).
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