An account from Maggie Ronayne, active in IJAN and Global Women’s Strike:
About 300 people attended a demonstration in Galway, Ireland, at short notice and with little publicity. The demo began at 12.30pm, organised by the left. The majority were from the Middle East, Palestinians and others, plus other Muslim women and men, including from Africa. There were a number of speakers from the Middle East and Ireland, among whom was Palestine solidarity organiser Treasa Ní Ceannabháin, who had been prevented from leaving Gaza for a time last year after delivering aid (she told me later that as a result of this experience she was receiving emails from many groups worldwide, including IJAN in Canada).
When the organiserstried to end the demo, people began ‘Free Palestine’ chants and more Middle Eastern people got up to speak, including to condemn the Arab governments especially Egypt. One woman spoke to thank people for coming. Some people said ‘Let’s march down the main street, let’s go’ and most people started to march through the main street of Galway. People came out of shops and pubs and stood respectfully to watch the march pass, some silent, some joined chants or applauded. By the end, the core was Middle Eastern people and they did not want to stop marching or chanting. An Egyptian doctor proposed that there be a march from the mosque after Friday prayers & people readily agreed to this.
Many Arab children attended. They had made their own placards, sometimes on small pieces of paper saying ‘Free Palestine’, ‘Israel stop killing children’ and other things in Arabic. They marched through thestreet
holding them up.
My placard said ‘Zionism = colonialism, Zionists = racists, Stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people, Boycott Israel!’. A man from Afghanistan offered to hold it with me and did so throughout the protest. Arab women
were delighted and walked beside it with me, inviting me for coffee & to their houses afterwards. They invited me to the Friday march from the mosque as well.
I gave out about 200 IJAN Gaza statements which were very well received. Lots of Arab people came up to ask for additional copies or to say thank you. Several came back to me to say this is what we want, we are not
against Jewish people and never have been. Irish people were saying the same thing and also asking why don’t we have a Jewish anti-Zionist group in Ireland; they thought it would be great if Jewish people spoke out here.