Workers Solidarity Movement

The peaceful and carnival atmosphere at yesterday evenings (Saturday 12 August) FEIC's monthly vigil in front of Raytheon was shattered when 2 landrovers full of riot gear clad PSNI de-bussed and began filming and corralling protesters.

The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) and the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), called for a national demonstration against Israeli war crimes. This is a brief report of the march.

A young Israeli anarchist was shot by Israeli forces during a protest against the construction of the the so called ‘Separation Fence’ in Palestine. Matan Cohen, 17, was critically wounded when he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, after Israeli Border Police opened fire on a group of peaceful demonstrators at Bil’in, in the occupied West Bank.

The second intifada began in September 2000 and since then over 2,500* Palestinians have been killed and 41,000 have been wounded. These stark figures alone do not tell the full story of the subjugation and the brutal oppression of the people of Palestine. The Israeli occupation forces have engaged in the systematic destruction of the infrastructure of the Occupied Territories. They regularly carry out punitive raids using explosives and bulldozers that result in residential areas being reduced to a lunar landscape of rubble.

Media coverage of the murderous pogroms unleashed by the Israeli state against Palestinians leaves out some of the story. The so-called 'peace process' like that of Northern Ireland is based on institutionalising sectarianism rather than overcoming it. There are citizens of Palestine and Israel, from both Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, who seek something other then two rival sectarian states. Ironically the ideology behind the pogroms is Zionism - the belief that Jews will only be safe from pogroms in a country run by Jews.