Palestine supporters protest at soccer international

Palestinians were not trying to "exploit sport with politics" but to show their need for justice and the end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, a protest organised in Dublin for the Ireland-Israel soccer international, was told.

Dr Sam Nazer, secretary of the Palestinian community in Ireland, told protesters they were not against the sports fixture but wanted to show what the Palestinian people were suffering.

Calling for the implementation of UN resolution 194 to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he also said Israel should allow Palestinian refugees, of whom there are now some 4.5 million worldwide, to return home.

Between 300 and 500 people took part in the demonstration which started at the Central Bank on Dame Street, followed by a march via Leinster House to the Israeli embassy in Ballsbridge. Protesters carried the Palestinian flag and posters, one depicting a footballer in shorts, army jacket and helmet and aiming a machine-gun.

During the match, a woman ran onto the pitch at half time waving a Palestinian flag but was quickly removed by stewards.

Earlier protesters followed a lorry with a billboard, one side of which showed a picture of an Irish eviction in the 1880s and the demolition of houses today. The slogan read: "Eviction, demolition and dispossession - Ireland 1880s, Israel today." The other side was a depiction of the controversial Apartheid Wall.

At the Central Bank, there was a brief scuffle when three passing Israelis waved their national flag and were confronted by some of the protesters. The gardaí separated the two sides.

Dr Nazer said nothing had happened on the Oslo Accord on Israeli withdrawal. The Israelis blamed Yassar Arafat "but Yassar Arafat is well dead now and there has been no movement".

People might say demonstrations against sports or trade boycotts were "crude weapons" and inappropriate, said Joe Cleary, of the Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, which organised the demonstration. "They are crude weapons but not as crude as bulldozers, apartheid walls and military occupation."

Mr Cleary said afterwards that "our sporting establishments should recognise that they cannot simply say sport is sport and politics is politics. They are connected and given that Israeli settlements continue to expand since the Oslo Accord, this has created huge problems."