Plans for 'largest ever' demo against Israeli action in Gaza in Cork this Saturday

Izz Cafe owners Eman Aburabie and Izzeddeen Alkarajeh: Mr Alkarajeh said there was 'a pressing need for a sustainable peace'. Picture: Shamim Malekmian

Organisers are hoping a demonstration against Israeli action in Gaza in Cork this Saturday will be the largest the city has ever seen.

The Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign also said that even if a truce was agreed in the coming days, the protest — at 1pm on Saturday at Cork City Library — will be just as important.

Announcing the rally at a press conference, Middle East scholar and historian Kathy Glavanis said: "We are calling for the largest-ever protest to demand a total ceasefire.

“We also want to see sanctions against Israel for war crimes.” 

Sinn Féin TD Cork South-Central for Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said: “It is important to keep the pressure on Israel. It is vitally important we hold this march at a time of the grim reality of what is going on.

We are demanding a ceasefire, and we must have justice. What is going on is viscous and cruel and while we have seen war crimes and oppression before, we have never seen anything on this scale before."

“It is truly brutal and horrific.”

Socialist Party TD for Mick Barry said that “when the rubble is cleared”, many more bodies will be found if those who have died in Gaza.

Of the ongoing talks for a truce, he said: “We want a complete and total ceasefire with an end to the Israeli state assault on Gaza.

“We also want to see an end to the brutal, bloody, and racial occupation of Palestinians lands.”

Palestinian restaurant Izz Cafe owner Izzeddeen Alkarajeh, who left Palestine for Saudi Arabia in 1999, said there was “a pressing need for a sustainable peace”.

He reminded people about the state of life in Gaza right now.

He spoke of how flour is now scarce, increasingly people are relying on tinned food and the price of fresh fruit has “skyrocketed” and is now unaffordable to the majority.

He also said people have to rely on animal-drawn carts for transport.

Mr Alkarajeh, who came to Ireland in 2016 with Jordanian wife Eman and their children, said: “The challenges underline the importance of international aid.

“Ireland can play a significant role and advocate for aid for Gaza, and we must question any state that flouts international law.”

The Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign has urged people to boycott Israeli goods and services.

They have also called on the Irish government to immediately ban imports and exports to Israel.

UCC academic Rola (Hamed) Abu Zeid-O’Neill said everyone has “a responsibility to check the origin of produce”.

This was, she said, to avoid anybody “supporting an apartheid regime”, such as Israel.