Five people were arrested in Dublin this week amid a series of actions and protests related to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On Tuesday July 22nd, gardaí attended the scene of a protest at the Egyptian Embassy against the continued closure of the Rafah crossing between Palestine’s Gaza Strip and Egypt. A protestor blocked a car from leaving the embassy. Gardaí said no arrests were made. *
On Wednesday, one woman was arrested after a rally outside the embassy, and was later released without charge. A spokesman for An Garda Síochána said that gardaí were alerted to a public order incident at the embassy and that they directed individuals to leave. “One female, aged in her 40s, was arrested under the Public Order Act and taken to a Garda station in Dublin south central. She was released without charge to be dealt with under the adult caution scheme,” the spokesman said of the Wednesday incident.
Three women and a man were arrested on Thursday at a separate location in Dublin, said by the protesters involved to be the Department of Justice, and later released.
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A Garda spokesman said the force was alerted to a public order incident on St Stephen’s Green at approximately 2.45pm on July 24th, again instructing them to vacate. “Three women (30s and 40s) and a man (50s) were arrested under the Public Order Act and conveyed to a Garda station in Dublin city centre,” he said. “They have all since been released without charge, to be considered under the adult caution scheme.”
Sara White (39) told The Irish Times she was one of the four pro-Palestine protesters brought to Pearse Street Garda station.
Ms White said the members of a “rainbow coalition group” of activists were protesting at the Department of Justice when the arrests took place.
They planned “to deliver a letter to the Ministers demanding [the] recalling of the Dáil so they could put pressure to open the borders to Gaza and let aid in,” she said.
“We had posters, we had pots and pans, we made noise, we asked repeatedly to speak and hand-deliver our letter and were refused.”
Ms White said the group was there for 30 to 40 minutes before gardaí came, after being warned that they were trespassing.
Ms White said the four were placed in cells and released at approximately 6.30pm without questioning.
Activist group Mothers Against Genocide shared a statement on social media on Thursday afternoon demanding the release of the four people who were arrested, which it said included one of their own members.
* This article was amended on Monday July 28th and again on Tuesday July 29th, to correct a previous conflation of protests at the Egyptian embassy on Tuesday July 22nd and Wednesday July 23rd.
