Pro-Palestine protest held at Dáil days after arrests
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
A pro-Palestine protest has been held outside Leinster House days after 14 people were arrested at a vigil protest.
Mothers Against Genocide said they were “devastated” at the Gardaí’s treatment of protesters who held an overnight vigil at the gates of Leinster House to coincide with Mother’s Day.
Protesters returned to the Dáil on Wednesday to support a bill that would look to restrict weapons shipments travelling through Ireland to Israel.
The road was briefly blocked as people held a Mothers Against Genocide banner and chanted slogans accusing the Taoiseach and Tánaiste of supporting genocide in Gaza.
Clare O’Connor from Mothers Against Genocide, one of the protest organisers, said she was “devastated” at the treatment of protesters at Leinster House on Monday but said it had “really mobilised people”.
“It hasn’t put me off and I don’t think it’s put anyone else off today,” she said.
“People are so angry that people that came out to stand in solidarity with women and children being slaughtered in Gaza were treated in that way.”
She said the Mother’s Day protest was about highlighting the mothers and children killed in Gaza and the Irish Government’s “complicity”, while Wednesday was focusing on the Arms Embargo Bill.
“The Arms Embargo Bill is to stop weapons being transported through Irish airspace to Israel which is being used in the slaughter of innocent people, and we’re out here protesting that.”
She said that free speech and the right to protest is being repressed in the US and Germany.
“If ever there was a time, now is the time to get out on the streets and be heard.
“We’d just ask people to come out and support us, we’re 18 months in, nobody thought we’d still be here. This is about Palestine but it’s also about the whole world.
“If international law doesn’t count, what does it mean for the world? If it can happen in Palestine it can happen absolutely anywhere.”
Mothers Against Genocide has said said it will file a complaint to the Garda Síochana Ombudsman Commission over allegations that some women who were arrested were strip searched and one was subjected to a cavity search.
Gardaí released a statement on Wednesday denying that a cavity search took place and stating that searches were conducted in line with regulations.
“Preliminary inquiries conducted by local Garda management have found that any searches conducted were in line with the Treatment of Persons in Custody in Garda Síochána Stations Regulations (Criminal Justice Act, 1984),” a statement said.
“An Garda Siochana refutes any allegation that a cavity search took place.”
The Arms Embargo Bill is to be revived in the Seanad at 5.30pm on Wednesday by four senators, including Senator Frances Black who tabled the Occupied Territories Bill.
Ms O’Connor said of the two bills: “They’re two pieces of legislation actually asking us to do what we’re already supposed to be doing. We’re just asking people to uphold international law.”
