WITH shouts of "Allah akbar" (God is great) and "Israeli child killers", a small part of the great wave of Arab outrage at the killings at Qana washed up in Dublin yesterday.
About 40 members of the Lebanese community and their supporters held a half hour protest outside the Dail, having travelled in cavalcade from the Dublin mosque on the South Circular Road.
The protesters then moved on to the Israeli embassy in Ballsbridge, which had already closed for the day. Amnesty International later held a vigil outside the embassy to protest against the "indiscriminate killings of civilians by both Israeli forces and Hizbullah".
Amnesty accused the Israeli government of acting deliberately to create a humanitarian crisis. It says Israel already stands condemned for practising systematic torture and holding Lebanese detainees without charge or trial.
Mr Hassan Moussa, the Lebanese government's official representative in Ireland, said the Qana killings were not accidental. "The Israelis have been having accidents every day. Their accidents have been killing people for the past 14 years."
Mr Moussa, who has lived in Ireland for 10 years, said it was not enough for the Government to condemn Israeli aggression. "Mr Bruton takes orders. He does what the British say. Ireland should stand by itself, and act to end this evil."
Another speaker, Mr Youssef Dakik, said his sister's house in southern Lebanon had been bombed two days ago. "But the Israelis will get nowhere, not even if they bomb every single home in the Lebanon.
"The Israelis, they're from Poland and Germany. The Germans kicked their ass and then they come to our land ... But there is no way they can kick us out. It's like the British in Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr Dakik said gardai had stopped him because his car displayed an "Israelis get out of Lebanon" sticker.
Although the Dail was not in session yesterday, a small number of politicians turned up to show their solidarity with the protesters. They included the independent TD, Ms Mildred Fox, and Mr Sean Kenny of Labour.
Ms Fox said her sympathies were with the Lebanese community in Ireland and elsewhere, who must be "terrified" for their families back home. "No civilised country can accept the actions of Israel, such as the bombing of civilians. If Israel is not prepared to act in a civilised way, we should deal with them by cutting off as many links as possible."
The protest was also attended by a number of Irish sympathisers, including Mr John Ayres who has just returned from Beirut, where his traditional group Paddy's Lament, was on tour.
"Even before the present attacks, it seemed to me the Israeli army was intimidating the local population. Their fighter pilots would fly overhead, then hover and accelerate once again. The sonic boom their planes emitted was horrific. It sounded like a series of explosions," he said.
A further protest organised by Labour Youth will take place outside the embassy at 1 p.m. today.
Mark Brennock adds: A statement issued by the Israeli embassy in Dublin yesterday expressed deep regret at the killings, but admitted no culpability for the deaths. Israel did not target the UN compound at Qana, the statement said.
Hizbullah had insisted on firing into Israel from positions close to civilians "with the full knowledge that this would endanger all who were in the area. Just yesterday Hizbullah leader Muhammed Raad stated that the civilian population constitutes our defensive belt. By this inhuman policy Hizbullah is bringing a veritable disaster upon Lebanon." Hizbullah was also using UN positions as a defensive shield.
The reason the Lebanese government shared the blame was that "it has refused to discharge its international obligations and has allowed Hizbullah to attack".
The Israeli army did not target civilians but "our forces will return fire if fired upon. The government of Israel, which is responsible for the safety and security of its citizens, will not sit idly by as its towns and settlements are repeatedly bombarded, forcing our civilian population to remain confined in bomb shelters."
