‘Stop the genocide’: Pro-Palestine protest held outside Leinster House
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
A protest has been held outside Leinster house to call for an immediate end to the killing of people in Gaza.
The demonstration criticised the US for continuing to arm Israel.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 11 months since the October attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
Much of Gaza has been devastated by Israel’s subsequent military operation, which has destroyed water and sanitation services and limited food supplies to the Palestinian enclave.
UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, said this week there was now a risk of a polio outbreak due to the collapse of the region’s health services and a confirmed case in a 10-month-old child.
At the protest outside the gates of Leinster House on Dublin’s Merrion Street, people held signs with the slogans “Stop the genocide” and “Genocide Joe”, referring to US President Joe Biden and the US continuing to support Israel.
People carried signs reading “I’m a mother, not a target” and “I’m a child, not a target” and two protesters wore masks featuring the faces of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Biden.
At the Kildare Street end, a larger demonstration was held to the beat of drums, with people chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “Occupation no more” while waving Palestinian flags.
