On Mother’s Day, Mothers against Genocide held a candlelit vigil followed by an all-night camp outside the Dáil. They held a letter outlining their demands for the Government in regard to its complicity in the genocide in Palestine.
In an outrageous move by the Gardaí, these women, whose peaceful protest posed no threat to anyone, were forcibly removed, arrested on public order offences, and even strip searched – all in time for the war criminals’ accomplices to begin their day in Leinster House!
While particularly egregious, this is not an isolated case. In DCU that same week, a BDS activist was violently knocked to the ground and dragged on his knees to a Garda car for tapping on a window. Even more recently, three Palestine Action Éire activists were arrested for the ‘crime’ of running through Shannon’s airfield in protest of the scandalous use of the airport for transporting US weapons and military to the Middle East. Activists of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign were arrested outside the Westbury Hotel for peacefully protesting.
Also abroad – in the US, Germany, Britain and beyond – we see the same; democratic rights are being trampled over as the Palestine movement is being met with increasing state violence and repression.
The arrests, deportations and violence unleashed upon protesters are a sharp illustration of what the state really is. As Lenin explained, the state is composed of “special bodies of armed men”, such as the police and the army, who are seemingly placed as neutral arbiters above society. In reality, they exist to defend the interests of the ruling class.
But why is the Irish ruling class interested in repressing the Palestine movement?
Israel is Western imperialism’s main foothold in the Middle East. As its subservient lackeys, the Irish ruling class (while crying crocodile tears about the most extreme features of Israeli terror campaign in Gaza) has in deeds been fully complicit with the genocide. Now, with the new US administration in place, Martin & co. have been eager to prove their loyalty to the White House, including using a firmer hand on the question of Palestine.
Fight the establishment, fight capitalism
The bravery and dedication of pro-Palestine activists is to be commended, and we send them our unconditional solidarity in the face of state repression. They have been bravely and relentlessly fighting for putting an end to the genocide for more than 19 months, while the government and those attacking them have their hands stained with blood!
However, on the one hand, we must recognise that there is no amount of moral pressure or petitions that can turn the imperialists and their lackeys into peace-loving folks. On the other hand, isolated actions unfortunately give the ruling class a chance to pick off and repress the more determined layers carrying out the struggle.
This they do to scare those increasingly drawing radical conclusions out of the impasse of the Palestine movement. They target smaller protests and key individuals with little recourse, hoping to cut the legs of the movement before it cannot be contained.
In order to take decisive action in the face of the genocide, we need mass struggle by workers and students across Ireland. Indeed, the foundations are there for a mass movement that can effectively engage broad layers, one that links the fight for a free Palestine with the struggle for better conditions at home in a united movement against imperialism and capitalism.
To achieve this, individual actions will not suffice, we need to arm ourselves with correct perspectives, demands and strategies to go forward. Only in this way, can we launch a militant, mass struggle to end Ireland’s complicity in genocide.
