Call to ramp up support for Palestine

The campaign in support of Palestine must intensify in the months to come, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy told a demonstration in Monaghan Town’s Church Square.

Around 40 people gathered in the town centre for a 90-minute event organised by the Monaghan branch of a national campaign group as part of a countrywide awareness-raising initiative about the plight of the people of Palestine during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the military Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

Many of the attendees displayed Palestinian flags and posters accusing Israel of genocide and human rights violations and calling for international boycotts and sanctions.

Paddy Grenham of Palestine Solidarity Monaghan told the gathering that the Gaza conflict is being misrepresented by the media as a war when it is in fact “a genocide and an ethnic cleansing”. War can only happen, he believes, between two sovereign states, and Palestine has never achieved statehood as it doesn’t have control of its land or airspace.

“In a war,” Mr Grenham contended, “children are not targeted and killed. In a war there is no complete control of borders to prevent food and humanitarian aid getting to those who are suffering deliberately enforced starvation. In a war, rape is not used as a weapon, something which an official tribunal of inquiry has found Israel guilty of.”

Accusing Israel of conducting campaigns of “misinformation, disinformation and lies”, Mr Grenham claimed that, in what is being represented as a ceasefire, 300 Palestinians have been killed and 45,000 Palestinians are missing and believed buried under the rubble of bombed buildings. He rejected claims of antisemitism made against groups protesting at Israel’s actions against Palestine, asserting that a political advocacy group, Jews for Peace, have also condemned Israel’s policy and called on the US to stop funding its weapons. The group has also supported calls for international boycotts and sanctions, he stated.

Mr Grenham called on those attending the demonstration to put pressure on their local GAA clubs to cut ties with sponsor Allianz, which has been placed on the boycott list of the global BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanction) movement because of its purchase of Israeli government bonds and investment in companies linked to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Deputy Carthy commended the Monaghan branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, stating that it has already made its presence felt despite being formed only a little over a year ago.

“A county like Monaghan on the periphery of our own imposed border,” the SF TD stated, “we innately have solidarity with the Palestinian people because we understand their struggles and we know the value of peace to communities.”

Deputy Carthy claimed that genocide in Gaza and the oppression of Palestinians is continuing daily.

“But a blind eye is now being turned because the images people had become so appalled by have disappeared from the TV screens. Defence Ministers from all over Europe recently met in Ireland to discuss peace but Palestine was hardly even mentioned.

“There was no mention whatever of the most systematic and long-lasting breaches of international law conducted by a state that enjoys beneficial treatment from the Western world rather than sanctions.”

Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the street to protest against US President Donald Trump’s visit to Ireland over the weekend.

A group from Cavan and Monaghan, who wanted to let President Trump know that they did not welcome him to Ireland, were among those gathered.

Paddy Grenham described Mr Trump’s presidency as “a joke”.

“His [administration’s] actions in the Middle East are affecting everybody. They are affecting the flow of oil, people needing refuge,” he said.

Mr Grenham listed the “ongoing supply of American weapons” to Israel and the recent attacks on Iran among the reasons he attended the peaceful protest. “But there was generally an aggressive message towards Trump.

“No State should support Trump in any way and he should not be welcomed into this country with open arms,” Mr Grenham believes.