IRISH ANTI WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM)–PRESS RELEASE 04 OCTOBER 2012
· IAWM SUPPORTS CALL BY ARCHITECTS AND ACADEMICS TO CLOSE OPEN HOUSE DUBLIN ‘POSTCARDS OF OUR CITY’ EXHIBITION
IRISH ANTI WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM)–PRESS RELEASE 04 OCTOBER 2012
· IAWM SUPPORTS CALL BY ARCHITECTS AND ACADEMICS TO CLOSE OPEN HOUSE DUBLIN ‘POSTCARDS OF OUR CITY’ EXHIBITION
· IAWM SUPPORTS THE ‘POSTCARDS FOR PALESTINE’ PROTEST TODAY OUTSIDE DUBLIN CIVIC TRUST, 4 CASTLE STREET, DUBLIN 2 AT 6PM.
· EXPOSE HOW THE ISRAELI STATE USES CULTURE, INCLUDING ARCHITECTURE, TO PROMOTE ITS COLONISATION OF PALESTINE
In a statement issued today the Irish Anti-war Movement (IAWM) called on its members and the general public to support the call by architects and academics, as outlined in a letter in the Irish Times today (copy attached), for Dublin Civic Trust to withdraw the use of its premises for the Open House Dublin exhibition titled ‘Postcards of our City’. The exhibition is sponsored by the Israeli Embassy and will be opened by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn today at 6.30pm.
The statement also called on its members to support the peaceful ‘Postcards for Palestine’ event outside the Dublin Civic Trust.
The statement noted that this event is yet another example of the Israeli state attempting to use culture, in this case architecture, to normalize its policy of colonisation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, a policy which dates back to 1948. Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to send postcards to random citizens of Tel Aviv. The IPSC event (see below and attached for details) is inviting attendees to send postcards of solidarity to refugee families from the four destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages over which Tel Aviv is built, who are denied their right of return to their homeland.
Jim Roche, PRO from the IAWM, said:
“The state of Israel uses architecture and town planning as part of its continued colonisation of Palestinian lands and ethnic cleansing of its people. This stretches across a deliberate policy of ‘urbicide’ of towns and villages in terms of demolitions of property to the internationally recognised illegal policy of new settlements on what is clearly Palestinian land.”
He concluded by noting:
“Events like this Open House Dublin ‘Postcards of our City’ give the Israeli state easy propaganda for its colonization policies. In the case of Tel Aviv, as the letter in the Irish Times states, it was founded on the ruins of four Palestinian villages that were forcibly ethnically cleansed and destroyed. It is important that citizens of Dublin are made aware of this which is why the IAWM is supporting the IPSC counter event.”
END
For more information:
Jim Roche, PRO Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 087 6472737
Mark Price, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 086 345 4332
Website – www.irishantiwar.org
@IrishAntiWarMvt <https://twitter.com/#!/IrishAntiWarMvt>
Find us on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/groups/25608030879/>
IPSC NOTICE
Today (Thur 4 Oct): Postcards for Palestine action at Israeli Embassy Sponsored ‘Open House’ event
Dublin’s ‘Open House’ architectural festival has shamefully lent its name to an event sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Ireland. This event, entitled ‘Postcards of our City’ is due to be launched on at 6.30pm Thursday 4th October in Dublin Civic Trust (4 Castle St, Dublin 2), is the latest attempt by the Israeli state to use ‘cultural propaganda’ to whitewash its human rights abuses and war crimes against the Palestinian people. Those attending will be invited by the Israeli Embassy to send postcards to “random” residents of Tel Aviv.
In response, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) will be organising a peaceful ‘Postcards for Palestine’ event outside, to remind those attending that far from “emerging from the sand dunes” – as the Israeli Embassy invitation to the event proclaims – Tel Aviv itself is, in part, built over the remains of four Palestinian villages – Sheikh Muwannis, Jammusin, Salame and Summeil which were ethnically cleaned by Israeli-Zionist military forces in the 1948 Nakba (‘Catastrophe’). To this day, the Israeli state maintains a policy of home demolition and settlement building in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We will be inviting people to send postcards of solidarity to refugee families from the four depopulated Palestinian villages, denied their right of return to their homeland.
In a peaceful and respectful manner, we aim to highlight the hypocrisy of this event being a) part of the ‘Open House’ festival and b) staged by the Israeli state, considering Israel’s ruthless policy of historical and contemporary social and architectural destruction. We will meet at 5.45pm on the path outside the Lord Edward pub at Christchurch Place, Dublin 2.
