PALESTINIANS LIVING IN Ireland attended a solidarity rally held in Dublin city centre this evening, and spoke of their worries for loved ones in Gaza.
A resurgence of violence broke out in Israel and Palestine over the weekend, as the militant group Hamas launched a series of unprecedented, surprise attacks on Israeli people and settlements.
An Irish-Israeli woman is amongst those who died after an attack on a music festival, which many young people and foreigners attended.
Since then, Israel has declared all out war on Hamas, and has carpet-bombed the Gaza strip, while cutting off access to power, food, and water for Palestinian civilians.
People in Palestine have been told to evacuate their homes, but many do not know where they can go – or how they will get there.
1,200 Israelis are reported dead, as well as 900 people in Gaza – but the death toll is likely to be higher.
Irish people and the Palestinian community in Ireland, as well as people from other countries, turned out tonight in Dublin city centre for the solidarity rally in support of Palestinian civilians.
Several Palestinian people expressed gratitude towards the crowd, and told of the suffering that their friends and family members are enduring.
Aseel Marabeh is studying here in Dublin. She is from the West Bank. She said that life is difficult there, but that she “cannot imagine” how difficult it is for people in Gaza.
”I wasn’t planning on speaking… I want to apologise in advance if I break down in tears. This is so overwhelming and truly heavy to me. We are pleased to be here, and also saddened that there is even an occasion of such oppression – such brutal oppression in 2023.
“People are being tortured and killed and bombed, and the whole world is watching. You just check Al Jazeera news and you can watch it, 24/7, and we are being condemned and being called terrorists.
“While we are standing here right now, there are children crying out for help, there are children stuck under the fucking rubble, and the defence is so overwhelming no one can help them, and are still being called terrorists,” she said.
Zak is currently in Gaza. At the time that he addressed the crowd in Dublin on speaker phone, it was shortly after 9 pm there. There was audible desperation in his voice, and at one point he became upset. It was sometimes hard to hear him.
“Hello. Thank you for your support, thank you Irish people. We are in Gaza where it is a very difficult situation now. We are in the streets… no power now, no electricity.
“There are bombs, people are dying, we are in darkness, please, we are asking you to stay in the streets, outside the embassy, this has to stop, because people are dead, people are injured,” he said.
Zak is currently in Gaza. He spoke to the crowd in Dublin over the phone. 'We are in darkness', he said, 'People are dying'. He has evacuated his home, he says he is in the street. pic.twitter.com/8boVDUDGhV
— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) October 11, 2023
Akram spoke at the rally, alongside his eight-year-old son Ibrahim.
They have lived in Ireland since 2021, but Akram’s daughter is in Gaza with his father. She works from there remotely for a Saudi company.
“They actually practice real genocide.Unfortunately I am very worried about my daughter,” he told the crowd.
“My daughter now is in the Gaza strip, she is a very qualified person, she is a director… with a company. She was the first best student when she graduated from business administration. And now she is crying every minute because there is no safe place to protect herself. She is with my father, they asked them to evacuate the house,” Akram went on to say.
Ibrahim is eight years old. He says he worried for his sister, who is in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/Pw0vc3h0NQ
— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) October 11, 2023
People Before Profit TD Brid Smith spoke at the rally, she was one of several Irish politicians to express their solidarity with the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
She said: “There isn’t a reasonable person on the planet that isn’t absolutely disgusted, shocked and saddened by the events of the last few days. But mostly, I think people who watch what goes on politically across the world, are disgusted at the hypocrisy of the USA, of Britain, and of the EU.
“These people have armed Israel to the teeth,” Smith added.
Chris Andrews, Sinn Féin TD also spoke at the rally. He has spent time in Palestine before, and has gone to Gaza to carry out humanitarian missions before.
“For me personally, I believe that the killing of innocents, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, is a war crime. I think that equally, the events since last weekend have not occured out of thin air – they haven’t just happened,” he said this evening.
“They have occurred because Israel has been punishing the Palestinians day in and day out. The punishment of the people in the Gaza strip is unacceptable. I spent a number of months there at one stage, and tried to break the siege a number of times.
The events of the last few days are terrifying. When you see the lack of respect Israel has for human rights, it is absolutely sickening,” Andrew added.
He said that alongside the release of Israeli hostages, Israel needs to “free” people from Gaza.
“They talk about people being kidnapped. Well I can tell you that the people in the Gaza strip have been kidnapped, 2.2 million people, and they are keeping them in the Gaza strip. When they talk about freeing hostages, they also need to look at freeing the people in Gaze,” he said.
Andrews added that he believes the Irish Government has “failed miserably”.
Independent Senator Frances Black that in her view, Israel has carried out war crimes in Gaza.
“Gaza is the most densely populated place in the world. In an area half the size of Co Louth, over two million people, half of them children, are trying to survive without adequate access to food, water, and power, and that’s in times of supposed peace.
“Now that war has been declared, Israel is blocking all access to food and fuel while it indiscriminately bombards Gaza. This is a collective punishment and targeting civilian people which are both war crimes,” she said.
Local Councillor Daithí Dolan said: “Irish people have stood shoulder to shoulder with Palestinians for the last couple of decades, because Palestinians stood with us during our struggle, be it in the prisons, on the streets of Belfast, or anywhere.
“We put out a very clear call to our MPs, and the Government. It is time for you to take the courage to stand up,” he added.
Walaa Ajjawai is Palestinian, but she has never been to Palestine.
“I only know about Palestine because of what my dad tells me. We’re here protesting the killing of innocent people, for our right to defend ourselves, and the occupation of our homeland 75 years ago, that is why we are here today.
“I have been in Ireland for 11 years, before that I lived in Lebanon,” she explained.
“We don’t stand for killing of innocents by Hamas, we know what that is like more than anyone,” Walaa said.
“What will you tell your kids in 30 years if the invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing, will you tell them that Russia has a right to defend itself, because they’ve come into the land and made it their home. No. You will tell them it is an illegal invasion. That is what happened to us too,” she added.
Conor, who lives in Dublin, said that he went to the protest to show his solidarity with Palestinian people, and that he is shocked by the killing of innocent people “by both sides”.
He said that he feels the Irish Government has been slow to take a stance since the outbreak of this most recent conflict, but that he felt Leo Varadkar’s comments in the Dáil today were “helpful”.
Varadkar today said that Israel’s international support will “evaporate quickly” if it carries out attacks on power stations and other civilian infrastructure.
“There must be restraint,” he said.
You can read about the latest updates on the war here, and you can read more about the different events and contributing factors that are behind this latest resurgence of violence in the region here.
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