Biggest ever attendance as more than 300 attend Sligo’s Solidarity Vigil with Palestine and Gaza
MORE than 300 people, the biggest number ever of participants, attended a New Year’s Eve Solidarity Vigil with Palestine and Gaza held in Sligo last Sunday.
It’s the biggest ever number of participants, with people gathering at Hyde Bridge on Sunday afternoon to express their support for the Palestinian people and to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Those attending displayed Palestinian flags, banners and placards which read: “Boycott Israeli Goods,” “Free Palestine,” “Shame on Biden,” “Permanent Ceasefire Now,” “Stop the Genocide,” and “End the Siege of Gaza.”
Among the participants were public representatives including Sligo’s Mayor Cllr Declan Bree, MEP Chris MacManus, Cllr Gino O’Boyle and Cllr Arthur Gibbons.
The President of the Sligo Council of Trade Unions, Mr Pat Fallon, also participated.
Speaking to the “Sligo Weekender,” Cllr Bree said, “In the densely populated Gaza strip, the loss of life is staggering.
“Israel’s 12 weeks of bombardment has killed more than 20,000 Palestinian civilians, almost 70 percent of them women and children. Another 25,000 children have lost one or both of their parents.
“Thousands of people are missing, presumed dead. More than 80 per cent of the population of Gaza has been displaced, more than 60 percent of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Nearly two million people face winter without safety from bombing or the basics of human survival – food, water, shelter.
“When President Biden visited Ireland in the recent past he received a warm welcome. Irish people are now at a loss to understand how President Biden can justify supporting the Israeli military who are deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure in direct violation of international law.
“Irish people are finding it difficult to come to terms with President Biden's decision to veto every attempt by the nations of the world to bring about a humanitarian ceasefire. Today President Biden and the U.S. administration are complicit in war crimes by continuing to provide the Israeli regime with massive shipments of armaments and by constantly undermining all efforts to bring about a ceasefire,” he said.
Cllr Gino O’Boyle said, “It is hard to comprehend the death, the destruction, and the slaughter that Israel is inflicting on the entire population of Gaza. These are war crimes. These are crimes against humanity. This is genocide. This is ethnic cleansing. Israel could not continue its war against the
Palestinian people without U.S. bombs and armaments. Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted this when he told a group of local government officials, ‘we need three things from the U.S.: munitions, munitions, munitions.
“The bombs have wreaked more destruction on the tiny area of Gaza than all the carpet bombing of Germany during the last year of World War II.
“We urgently need a permanent ceasefire to stop this genocide. And, beyond that, only an end to the occupation can bring any semblance of peace and justice to Palestine,” he said.
Expressing outrage at the killing of Palestinian children, Cllr Arthur Gibbons said, “Today we are witnessing the wilful killing of children in their thousands, perpetrated by a rogue state that has completely lost its moral compass.
“As the bombing intensifies, children are suffering the gravest violations of their rights. Their lives are of little consequence as hourly attacks on their homes, schools and most cruelly, hospitals, are continually perpetrated. What is happening in Gaza in full view of the world is a humanitarian disaster.
“The bombardment, the massacre of civilians and children, and mass displacement of an entire population simply cannot be allowed to continue.
“It is barbaric and a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
“The Irish people have a long and proud history of standing with the Palestinian people and today we are calling for an immediate ceasefire and we are seeking a full and swift investigation by the International Criminal Court into Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the crimes of genocide and apartheid,” he said.