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Thousands took to the streets on Sunday, December 17 in Belfast, Northern Ireland to "demand a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US, EU and UK complicity in Israel’s war crimes."
Over the weekend there were also rallies and demonstrations in other cities in Ireland such as Cork.
On December 18, the Workers' Party of Ireland -- which took part in a number of the marches -- released an excellent statement demanding that the "Genocide must be ended, not paused",
Statement:
On Sunday, thousands of protesters again took to the streets in Belfast to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US, EU and UK complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians continues. Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip has been characterised by widespread and large-scale attacks on civilian infrastructure. The Israeli state continues to target civilians in their ongoing criminal campaign to eradicate the Palestinian people. Israeli forces, using prohibited weapons, attack women, children and the elderly, mothers with their newborn babies, extremely ill hospital patients, including patients on dialysis, refugee columns, doctors and medical personnel, journalists and TV crews on assignments, farmers and civilians fleeing their homes in pursuit of safety.
Israel has decimated residential neighbourhoods, hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches and cultural and historic relics. It has systematically destroyed facilities for electrical generation, hospital equipment, power and water and sanitation installations, causing widespread humanitarian catastrophe, The civilian population is deprived of food, water and shelter in a barbaric assault designed to destroy a people and eradicate their rights and culture.
As the Israeli army continues its genocidal war on Gaza, and as the Israeli occupation forces and settler militias carry out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the people of the world protest and join in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Meanwhile, the US, EU and Britain - together with the other global puppets of the US - repeat weasel words and remain complicit in these war crimes against the Palestinian people.
An immediate and permanent ceasefire is necessary. It must be the starting point to address the underlying causes of the problems of the region, including decades of military occupation and a system of oppression against the Palestinian people that is considered internationally to meet the legal definition of apartheid. The British government must end its complicity in Israel’s crimes, starting by joining the call for the immediate cessation of the killing of civilians. There must be an end to businesses and banks trading and profiting from Israel’s military occupation, illegal settlements and violations of Palestinian rights.
The Workers Party of Ireland demands an immediate permanent ceasefire; an end to the blockade of Gaza; a full investigation into Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity; an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid; recognition of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; a guarantee of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolutions; the release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the full recognition of an independent sovereign state of Palestine.
Ted Tynan, President
Gerry Grainger, International Secretary
On behalf of the Central Executive Committee
Workers Party of Ireland
Dublin protest:
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