A PROTEST HAS been held outside Leinster House in response to a United States delegation visiting the building today.

In a statement yesterday, People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said she was made aware that the Dáil Chamber was scheduled for use today for a meeting of members of the US Congress and other US officials.

Smith said she was “vehemently opposed” to the Dáil being used “by the US political establishment as it continues to fund genocide in Palestine by arming the Israeli war machine”.

Smith added: “The Israeli state’s genocide would soon grind to a halt if the US stopped arming it, so there should be no welcome in the Dáil for Israel’s main arms dealer.”

Protesters wearing a Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu mask take part in a pro-Palestine protest outside Leinster House Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Today’s protest was organised by a coalition of Irish groups supporting Palestine, including the Union of Students in Ireland, the Irish Anti-war Movement and Mothers Against Genocide.

Demonstrators at today’s protest 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 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.

Much of Gaza has been devastated by Israel’s subsequent military operation, which has destroyed water and sanitation services and limited food supplies to the Palestinian enclave.

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 which resulted in them being paralysed.

Protesters take part in a pro-Palestine protest outside the Merrion Square entrance to Leinster House. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

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 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.

Speaking at the protest, Smith said she understands that it will continue until the delegation leaves Leinster House.

“People are disgusted and raging that the Dáil 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.

Meanwhile, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) will hold a demonstration tomorrow afternoon beside City Hall in Dublin.

Campaigners will gather at 1pm at Barnardo Square and will hold red banners.

The ISPC said these red banners symbolise the “non-existent ‘red line’ that Biden promised would be crossed if the Israeli state attacked the tent encampments of Rafah where hundreds of thousands of refugees sought shelter”.

Protesters take part in a pro-Palestine protest on Kildare Street outside Leinster House Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Earlier this year, Biden said an invasion of Rafah would be a “red line”, although State Department officials later walked those comments back and reaffirmed their continued support for Israel. 

The ISPC will call for an end to the US funding Israel and for the Irish government to “take concrete action at national, EU and UN levels to hold Israel accountable”.

It will also call for an “inspection regime to ensure that weapons or military tech are not being transported to Israel via Irish airspace”.

-With additional reporting from Press Association