Richard Boyd Barrett and other People Before Profit candidates this morning briefed the press on manifesto commitments on solidarity with Palestine.
Speaking on Kildare Street in front of Leinster House, Richard Boyd Barrett said “Israel is a violent rogue state that has launched a campaign of genocide against the people of Gaza. It has launched a war on Lebanon, bombing its people and invading the country.
The US has supplied Israel with all forms of lethal weaponry as well as military intelligence co-operation. It has given Israel an estimated $18 billion in military supplies since the attacks on Gaza began in October 2023.
The EU is the second-largest arms supplier to Israel, after the US, and Ursula Van Der Leyen has openly supported Israel’s war. And while it piles on sanctions against Russia over its illegitimate invasion of Ukraine, the EU refuses to impose any sanctions on Israel.
The crimes that Israel have committed against the Palestinian people far exceed even the crimes of the apartheid regime in South Africa. If that regime deserved to be sanctioned and isolated from the international community, how much more does Israel deserve to be sanctioned and isolated for its murderous and genocidal crimes against the people of Palestine.
The horrors we've seen in the last year could only have happened with the economic and political support it has been given by Western countries, and the impunity it has been granted despite decades of illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and multiple breaches of international law.
The Irish government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth and is not serious about taking any real action against Israel. To do so would put them at odds with the US, the EU and the Western powers, and that’s something they will not do. The government has refused to expel the Israeli ambassador. It has allowed planes to enter Irish airspace carrying weapons for Israel. It pretends to investigate how this occurred but is doing nothing to stop the airlines using Irish airspace. It allows the US military to use Shannon airport unchecked. It has delayed the Occupied Territories Bill since 2018. Paschal Donohoe even made a phone call to reassure the Israeli government that Ireland would not pass the bill. There is a name for this. It is complicity.
People Before Profit are totally opposed to the complicity of the Western powers and of the Irish government and we will continue to be a strong voice for Palestine in the Dáil and on the streets.”
In our manifesto, People Before Profit commits to;
- Expel the Israeli Ambassador & withdraw our diplomatic mission from Israel;
- Push for the Irish government to officially adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions position on Israel. This would mean that all agencies of the Irish state refuse to have anything to do with Israel;
- Close Shannon airport to US troops.
- Stop the use of Irish air space to facilitate genocide;
- Pass the Occupied Territories Bill immediately;
- Stop the Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds