Irish Parliament challenged government on 'Israel' stance: MP
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Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett underlines that his country's people support the Palestinian people and cause, but the government has other plans in mind and does not represent them.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters seen outside the GPO on O'Connell Street, Dublin, during a "Rally for Palestine" protest, May 22, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland (AFP)
The people of Ireland are protesting in solidarity with the Palestinian people in light of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip as "Tel Aviv" turns their homes into nothing but dust and rubble while indiscriminately murdering hundreds of civilians.
Irish Parliament Member Richard Boyd Barrett told Al Mayadeen on Wednesday that he was attending the said protest in the north of the country to express his solidarity with the people of Gaza and support of the Palestinian cause.
"Today in the Parliament, we challenged our own government, the Irish government, to, uh, take action against the war crimes that are now being committed by Israel against the people of Gaza," Barrett told Al Mayadeen, highlighting Irish solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which has existed since the Irish cause of liberation from the United Kingdom started garnering worldwide attention.
"We challenged the Irish Prime Minister to acknowledge that the violence that we have seen in the last few days did not begin with the events of the weekend, but actually began as a result of a 17-year-long siege," he added, calling it a war crime.
Barrett is talking about when the Israeli occupation started its blockade on the Gaza Strip upon its forced military withdrawal from it in 2005.
He went on to condemn the Israeli "ethnic cleansing" of the Palestinian people, the "seizure of Palestinian land, the illegal settlements."
The Irish politician attributed the recent escalation in Gaza and the Gaza Envelope to the "failure of the international community, the failure of the United States and the European Union to hold Israel to account for its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people."
"Sadly, our own government and the European Union leaders and the United States are being apologists for the crimes of Israel," the Irish MP underlined, calling these actions a "disgrace".
"Sadly, our own government and the #EU leaders and the US are being apologists for the crimes of Israel and that is a disgrace."
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 11, 2023
-Irish MP Richard Boyd to #AlMayadeen#Gaza #OperationAlAqsaFlood @RBoydBarrett pic.twitter.com/mBHN3UeHqF
Moreover, he went on to highlight how the majority of people in Ireland stood with the Palestinian people due to their common history of being victims of British colonialism.
"I think the vast majority of Irish people understand this from our own history. Sadly, tragically, the Irish government is very keen to become a member of the European Union elite club," Barrett explained, underlining that Dublin was not willing to challenge the double standards of the major powers in the European Union.
"There is a big gap between the official policies of the Irish government and the views of the majority of Irish people who - I think - stand with and support the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation," he concluded by saying.
Richard Boyd Barrett talks about the 'gap' that exists between the official policies of the #Irish government and the views of the majority of the Irish people who support the #Palestinian cause. pic.twitter.com/dTWjbJ0Qp2
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 11, 2023
The support for Palestine comes after hundreds of Irish pro-Palestine activists demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy in Dublin, on Monday evening, deploring the brutal bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israeli occupation forces.
The demonstrators underscored that Palestinians have the full right to defend themselves and commended the Palestinian Resistance reaffirming their right to defend their freedom in all ways deemed appropriate.
On his part, Irish Representative Richard Boyd Barrett gave a speech during the demonstrations and drew attention to the "double standards" of the United States of America, the European Union, and the government of Ireland, "who had supported Ukraine with all kinds of weapons and ammunition over the previous two years, down to internationally prohibited cluster munitions, and renounced the Palestinian people who had every right to resist occupation, as terrorists."
"All human rights institutions have accused Israel of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing," Barrett said, adding that "these institutions disguised Israel's crimes throughout the blockade of Gaza from the policy of collective punishment of 2 million people, and aggression contorted the aggression against the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the United Nations designation of Gaza as a state of ongoing humanitarian crisis. "
"How do they expect the Palestinian people to feel about this? Which is every day the West treats them as human beings of a lower degree, with inhumanity, while every day they say we want weapons for Israel."
