Demonstrators at a Palestine solidarity march in Dublin called on the Government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill and impose sanctions on Israel.
The demonstration on Saturday, which was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), marched from the Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House.
Zoë Lawlor, chair of the IPSC, told the crowd: “There is no ceasefire.
“What is being done to the Palestinians is just a slowed-down genocide, every bit of it planned and engineered by Israel with the full complicity of the so-called international community of Trump, the EU, von der Leyen, Starmer, Merz, Macron, so many governments, including the Irish Government.”
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Her comments were met with cries of “shame, shame” from the crowd.
A ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on October 10th, but Israel has continued to conduct regular strikes in the Palestinian territory since then. Some 850 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began and attacks by Israel have increased in recent weeks.
Lawlor called on the Government to implement the long-delayed Occupied Territories Bill – which would prevent trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements, impose sanctions on Israel, and “get the US military out of Shannon”.
Lawlor said the IPSC was “proud” of the fact Ireland is among the countries boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Vienna on Saturday night, because of Israel’s participation.
“We campaigned for years for this and we have to celebrate our wins, they are hard fought,” she said, praising the venues who have chosen to not screen the event.
Lawlor called for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to refuse to play Israel in the Uefa Nations League in Dublin in October.
“The FAI must boycott them. We will make absolutely sure that no game against Israel happens in this city,” she said, as the crowd chanted “stop the game”.
FAI chief executive David Courell previously said the Republic of Ireland had “no choice” but to fulfil its fixtures with Israel.
The march on Saturday commemorated the 78th anniversary of the Nakba – Arabic for “catastrophe” – in which about 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Hamza Salha, a Palestinian journalist who now lives in Ireland, told the crowd his grandfather – who was displaced during the Nakba – died during an Israeli strike in 2024.
“My grandfather also witnessed the ongoing Nakba before he died on October 7th, 2024, after he was besieged for a week in our house,” he said.
Salha, who is studying journalism at the University of Limerick, spoke about being the sole survivor of an Israeli air strike in December 2023.
“I found myself under a six-floor building that collapsed on me,” he said. “I was the only survivor, and I was severely injured. For two months, I was unable to move.”
Salha said that when he was brought to a makeshift hospital, he was “laid among the corpses” including the body of a child. This experience changed him, he said, and he started to document what was happening in Gaza.
He called on people in Ireland to continue supporting Palestine and “stop the genocide”.
Richard Boyd Barrett, the People Before Profit–Solidarity TD, called on the crowd to attend another protest next Wednesday in support of legislation he has introduced which would impose sanctions against Israel.
“This is a Bill that I proposed, but it’s been backed not just by People Before Profit, but by Labour, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the IPSC, all of those who are campaigning and advocating for Palestine, demanding something that should have been done many, many years ago,” he said.
TDs will vote on the legislation next Wednesday.
