Protesters call for Israel ambassador’s expulsion
Organisers want Irish to make noise over ‘genocide’ in Gaza
PROTESTERS chanted “how many children have to die” and “Palestine will be free” outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin yesterday.
Many cars honked their horns on the busy Ballsbridge street as protesters shouted for the expulsion of the Israel Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich.
One of the organisers of the demonstration, Dublin GAA legend Dr David Hickey, said he wants to see more Irish people making noise about the “horrific genocide” in Gaza.
He said: “We get nothing when we do nothing, we need to recognise Palestine as a state, we need to expel the ambassador and we need to sanction Israel.”
Asked if he would consider escalating the protest, such as disrupting traffic, Dr Hickey said: “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place with this, if you are peaceful everything goes nicely but there’s no impact but you also don’t want to be causing trouble for trouble’s sake. But, time is running out, in a month’s time half the population will be dead and Israel knows that.”
Dr Hickey said he luckily doesn’t know anyone in Gaza who has died, but knows many Palestinian medical students in Ireland who are deeply worried about their families.
He along with other protesters held placards of pictures and names of children who have died in Gaza, as others waved signs saying “Stop the genocide now”, “Free Palestine”, and “Expel the Israeli Ambassador”.
Michael Doherty, who set up Gaels Against Genocide in Gaza, said he believes more pressure is now on the Government to expel the Israeli ambassador following the deaths of aid workers.
However, he added: “It’s terrible the humanitarian workers dying appear to be more important than the lives of 33,000 Palestinians.” Mr Doherty has many friends from Palestine, who he met at an annual Anti-racism World Cup event in his local area Lenadoon in
Belfast. Before war broke out in October, the organisation would fly Palestinian children and coaches over to partake in the football tournament.
Roisin Mcaleer from Tyrone, who is part of Social Rights Ireland, said: “What happened this week with aid workers being slaughtered, we are absolutely outraged. You can hear the energy in people’s voices, it’s not low key, people are extremely angry.”
Liam Mellows, from Kildare, said: “I was off work so I felt like I had to get down and show my support for the Palestinian cause because I feel like there hasn’t been a concentrated effort to protest at the embassy.”
You can hear the energy in people’s voices. It’s not low key ROISIN MCALEER AT PROTEST, FROM CO TYRONE