IRISH ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT Press Release – Aug 30th
ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT CALLS ON IRISH PUBLIC TO ASSIST IN BREAKING THE OBSECENITY OF GAZA SIEGE.
At a press conference today (Aug 30th) at 11am in the Gresham Hotel, the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) joined a range of other organisations in committing itself to the campaign to raise funds to send an Irish ship on a second international aid flotilla due to sail for Gaza in late October or early November.
The IAWM are part of a recently established coalition of anti-war and Palestine solidarity organisations – Irish Ship to Gaza – that will be raising funds over the coming weeks with the aim of purchasing a ship to join the second international flotilla.
The IAWM believe the four year long Israeli siege represents a "criminal and barbaric aggression" against the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza that must be challenged by the International community until Israel is forced to dismantle it.
The IAWM committed itself to a major national mobilisation over the coming weeks behind the fundraising campaign for an Irish Ship to Gaza, and appealed to the Irish public to support the campaign as a "vital act of humanitarian solidarity with the beleaguered and suffering people of Gaza."
Claudia Saba, a Palestinian and member of the steering committee of the IAWM said:
IRISH ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT Press Release – Aug 30th
ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT CALLS ON IRISH PUBLIC TO ASSIST IN BREAKING THE OBSECENITY OF GAZA SIEGE.
At a press conference today (Aug 30th) at 11am in the Gresham Hotel, the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) joined a range of other organisations in committing itself to the campaign to raise funds to send an Irish ship on a second international aid flotilla due to sail for Gaza in late October or early November.
The IAWM are part of a recently established coalition of anti-war and Palestine solidarity organisations – Irish Ship to Gaza – that will be raising funds over the coming weeks with the aim of purchasing a ship to join the second international flotilla.
The IAWM believe the four year long Israeli siege represents a "criminal and barbaric aggression" against the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza that must be challenged by the International community until Israel is forced to dismantle it.
The IAWM committed itself to a major national mobilisation over the coming weeks behind the fundraising campaign for an Irish Ship to Gaza, and appealed to the Irish public to support the campaign as a "vital act of humanitarian solidarity with the beleaguered and suffering people of Gaza."
Claudia Saba, a Palestinian and member of the steering committee of the IAWM said:
"Seven hundred thousand children are continuing to suffer without access to proper medical care and without access to sufficient nutrition or clean water. Yet this is not a natural disaster, it is a man-made disaster that can be stopped tomorrow. It is almost surreal to think that such a large number of people have been subjugated to so much misery for four long years and that this misery continues without end in sight.
The unlawful and torturous nature of this cruel siege makes Gaza the Guantanamo of Israel.
I appeal to the people of this country to support the Irish ship on its humanitarian mission. The flotilla of ships to Gaza is essentially a people’s navy – called to act where governments have failed to act."
Richard Boyd Barrett, chairperson of the IAWM said:
"The siege of Gaza is an obscenity and a crime by any meaningful standard of international law or common morality. It is a barbaric act of aggression against an entire population -deliberately designed to take life and crush a people.
Israel’s massacre of 1400 people, including 300 children, in Gaza at the end of 2008 and more recently its murder of 9 peace activists on an aid flotilla, show that it is oblivious to normal standards of human decency.
If the term ‘international community’ means anything at all, that community must act now to challenge Israel’s inhuman treatment of the people of Gaza. With government’s refusing to challenge Israel’s murderous aggression, it is up to ordinary people of conscience across the world to do so."
For more info/confirmation
Claudia Saba 086-3938821
Richard Boyd Barrett 086-7814520
