A demonstration to support the Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be staged in Dublin later today.
Activists plan to march from the Central Bank to the Dail and then the GPO in remembrance of the massacre at Deir Yassin in 1948.
Labour TD Michael D Higgins called on the international community to act now to bring the suffering in the Israeli-occupied territories to an end.
He said the demonstration was an opportunity to once again call on the state of Israel to cease its senseless, oppressive policies towards the people of Palestine and to enter a genuine dialogue for peace.
“The international community must bring its influence to bear to make Israel engage fully with Palestinian representatives so as to create circumstances securing the security of the state of Israel as well as the dignity of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“It is of the highest importance in this regard that yet more generations of Palestinians not be condemned to refugee status or to second class citizenship in Israel.”
Mr Higgins, Senator David Norris, and Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald will be among the politicians addressing the crowds.
Members of the Trade Union Friends of Palestine and Palestinian Community in Ireland will speak out, while Palestinian journalists in Gaza Sami will join discussions via video link.
Mr Higgins said the forces of the Israeli State continue to lay siege to Gaza. “Its civilian population, 80% of whom are unemployed and most of whom are dependent on UN emergency provision for their survival, is at risk,” he added.
“This is a calculated, deliberate targeting of the 1.5 million citizens of Gaza without any recognition of their human rights, and is nothing less than a form of collective punishment for all living in the area.”
PA