Dáil debates
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
Middle East: Statements
9:45 am
Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
It is another week of unspeakable horror in Gaza, with scores of people killed every single day, many of them - maybe most of them - while queuing for food. Another week of aid being used as a weapon of war against starving Gazans by the Israeli, US-backed, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Another week of distraction, reframing and excuses by most of the western establishment who enable, fund and arm this genocide. "Death, death to the IDF". That should be a statement of good sense. Dismantle the army that is responsible for this slaughter. Support Palestinian resistance to genocide and occupation.
It speaks of the upside down world in which we live that Bob Vylan chanting this simple slogan was treated as an outrage. It provoked more investigations into artists speaking up against genocide and more attempts to conflate protests against genocide with antisemitism. In the US and across Europe, Ireland included, we are seeing the spread of authoritarianism to shut down, oppose and prevent criticism of and opposition to Israel. There has been a crackdown and criminalising of peaceful protest. It will only be a few more days before Palestine Action will likely be officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain.
Last week, many of the peaceful activists I was with for the global march to Gaza were in Brussels to demand that the EU suspend its trade association agreement with Israel. They were violently suppressed. Irish activists were arrested and carried away for simply singing a Palestinian rendition of "Bella Ciao".
I will finish with some other words of Bob Vylan that have not received the same coverage. He said:
We, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story ... We are not the first. We will not be the last. And if you care for the sanctity of human life and freedom of speech, we urge you to speak up too. Free Palestine.
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