National Demonstration, Sat April 12th 2008 @ 2PM, Central Bank, Dublin.
From Deir Yassin to Gaza – THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE
60 years ago in Palestine, newly-arrived European Jewish settlers drove their long established Palestinian neighbours out of most of Palestine, which then became Israel. They did this through a combination of terror and massacre. Once again Israel is terrorising and massacring Palestinians – this time in Gaza – prompting fears of renewed mass ethnic cleansing.
Deir Yassin was a small village next to Jerusalem. Although its inhabitants hadn’t taken part in the fighting to defend Palestine, it was here that the most infamous massacre took place 60 years ago. On the morning of April 9th 1948, Zionist forces drove into the village, rounded up the men, women and children and coldbloodedly massacred them. The massacre was pre-planned and designed to terrorise other Palestinians into fleeing.
Afterwards, twenty five of the survivors were paraded around Jerusalem, then taken to a quarry and murdered. Today this would be called ‘collective punishment’ – the terrorism of the powerful. Today a million and a half innocent people in Gaza are being collectively punished. They are imprisoned; they are starved of food and water, subjected to aerial bombardment, tank and rocket attacks; denied electricity, medicines, and sewerage facilities.
They are being denied a future. Hundreds have died so far this year. This senseless brutality must stop if there is ever to be peace. Make your voice heard – come to our demonstration and demand that Israel ceases – and the International Community stops being complicit in – the destruction of Gaza. We can’t stop yesterday’s atrocities; we must prevent today’s.
