IRISH ANTI WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM) PRESS RELEASE – 12 January 2024
The IAWM is supporting the IPSC protest for Gaza tomorrow 13th January in Dublin as part of the World Day of Action for Gaza. See – IPSC
The IAWM condemns the bombing of 60 targets in Yemen by the US, Britain and others. This is a dangerous regional escalation of the Israeli war on Gaza that will only lead to further bloodshed and the killing of many more civilians. This is an attack led by the US on the poorest country in the world whose people have already endured immense suffering under a US supported, Saudi led war for seven years that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced millions and created a massive famine like humanitarian situation.
The Houthis have only disrupted shipping bound for Israel in what they say is in solidarity with Palestinians – unlike Israel which has killed over 22,000 Palestinians and maimed over 60,000 with US-made bombs and bullets. It is hard not to believe that the bombing of Yemen is a determined effort by the US to spread the war regionally and to deliberately distract from Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and from the South African government’s Genocide Convention application against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
If US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken is genuinely concerned about the number of civilians being slaughtered in Gaza and about the creation of a Palestinian State, as he claimed this week, then there is a simple solution. He should stop arming Israel and he should tell the Israeli Government to stop its relentless bombardment of Gaza and to pull its military out of Gaza.
If Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin are really concerned about the numbers of children being killed in Gaza there is also a simple solution. They should call in the US Ambassador, tell her of their concerns and request that her Government stops arming Israel and that the Irish Government will cease the facility to the US Military at Shannon Airport which should never have been allowed in the first place.
Jim Roche, PRO & Secretary, Steering Committee, IAWM said:
“Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin are disgracefully acting like stooges of the US Empire, cowering in fear that they will get a swipe of a stars and stripes flag should they dare express an independent and neutral foreign policy. They have openly criticised the South African Government’s case at the ICJ when they should be supporting it. The genocidal intent of Israeli leaders is beyond doubt – just read the transcripts, listen to the tapes and watch the videos of Israeli Government officials, military spokesmen and advisors. Micheál Martin, who after Operation Cast Lead in 2009, was the first European Foreign Minister to visit Gaza, seems now to be only thinking about his next job in the EU, at the expense of Gazans who are left at the mercy of a well-armed, US supported, vicious, fascist Israeli Government.
It is truly shameful. Ireland should be leading the way to bring Israel to account and get an immediate permanent ceasefire, massive humanitarian aid, UN protection for Palestinians and a political process put in place that addresses the decades long, systematic suppression of the Palestinian people. Until that happens, people around the world in their thousands and millions will continue to protest, as we will do in Dublin tomorrow, for sanctions against Israel and for justice and human rights for the Palestinians.”
The message to the Irish Government that the IAWM will put out loud and clear at Dublin’s March tomorrow, Saturday 13 January and subsequently is:
* Support South Africa’s Government’s Genocide Convention application to the ICJ
* Expel Israeli Ambassador from Ireland
* Boycott and sanction Israel
* Close the Shannon War Port
#CeasefireNow
#EndtheGazaGenocide
#ExpelIsraeliAmbassador
#StopEthnicCleansing
#EndtheOccupation
#BoycottApartheidIsrael
#StopBombingYemen
