Anti-War Movement calls for sanctions on Israel

The Irish Anti-War Movement is holding a march and demonstration to the Israeli Embassy on Thursday following yesterday's Israeli attack on the humanitiarian flotilla to Gaza.

The group is calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Ireland, the release of all prisoners in Israeli custody, and the imposition of sanctions on Israel.

The march will assemble at 6pm at the Central Bank plaza on Dame St, Dublin, before marching to the Dáil and then on to the Israeli embassy.

The IAWM said that the attack "should be the final straw in a long line of Israeli atrocities" that will push the Irish Government and the international community to impose sanctions on the state of Israel.

Richard Boyd Barrett, chairperson of the IAWM and one of the protest organisers said: "The world can no longer stand by and allow the crimes and state terrorism of Israel to continue. We can no longer treat Israel as a normal democratic state. Israel’s attack on the flotilla is a shocking act of state terrorism, from a state that has comitted one atrocity after another for years. Puublic protest must continue until real action is taken against this rogue state.

"Incredibly, Israel has attempted to justify its actions as an act of self defence. This lie must be utterly rejected. The flotilla was carrying only aid to assist the suffering people of Gaza. The aid was desperately needed by the people of Gaza to rebuild their homes and hospitals and bring food and medical supplies, after Israel’s murderous attack a year and a half ago - which killed over 1300 people and more than 300 children. The victims of Israel’s brutal attack were humanitarian and peace activists, whose only crime was seeking to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Claudia Saba, another protest organiser and Palestinian and Irish citizen said: "Israel has imposed a siege on over one million people in Gaza for more than two years - blocking vital humanitarian supplies and inflicting incredible hardship on the Palestinian people that live there. The UN and other human rights organisations have condemned Israel’s siege as a war crime and a crime against humanity - involving collective punishment and indiscriminate murder directed at a civilian population.

"This atrocity is simply the latest in a long line – the attack on Gaza, extra judicial executions using forged passports, the invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of the Quana refugee camp, the Shatilla and Sabra massacre, the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and the systematic denial of basic human rights for the Palestinian people for decades. How long can the crimes of this rogue state go unpunished?

"We must now take to the streets and demand that our government, and governments across the world, impose major sanctions on Israel. Like apartheid South Africa, Israel must be isolated by the international community until the oppression of the Palestinian people is finally ended. Israel hopes that protests will vent a bit of anger and then die off, as has happened before. We must ensure this does not happen.

!This atrocity must be the one that prompts the world to look for a real solution to this conflict - the dismantling of Israeli apartheid and the creation of a state where Jew, Arab, Christian and others have equal rights and equal claim to their shared homeland."