‘Mothers against genocide’ group’s protest ‘forcibly broken up’ by Gardai as state continues its Jekyll and Hyde stance on Israel.

At least eight Irish women have been arrested by Irish police after a ‘sleep out’ vigil outside the Irish Dáil parliament against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with supporters saying that the Gardai used force to break up the demonstration.

The vigil was filmed by Donegal Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which said:

Peaceful vigil, Mothers doing what they can to get our government to listen, to enact the OTB, to stop allowing weapons fly over our Irish airspace, to stop their silence. NOW ARRESTED. Garda presence by far outnumbering the number of peaceful protestors.

Gerry Carroll, an Assembly Member in Northern Ireland, described the arrests as ‘disgraceful’:

Disgraceful scenes in Dublin as Gardaí arrest Mothers Against Genocide members who were peacefully protesting outside the Dáil this morning.

The Irish Government cares more about punishing those who are protesting a genocide than doing anything about those committing a genocide.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have refused to take any real action against Israel. They have bowed down to Washington at every turn.

And now they bring out scores of Gardaí to arrest peaceful protesters who were using Mother’s Day to highlight the Palestine mothers murdered in Gaza.

Full solidarity with those arrested and with Mothers Against Genocide.

While the Irish government has infuriated Israel by recognising Palestinian statehood, asking the EU to halt a trade deal with Israel over Israel’s contempt for Palestinian human rights and joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and Irish UN peacekeeping troops faced down Israeli thugs in Lebanon, it has also been heavily criticised for its collusion in Israel’s genocide for allowing weapons supply flights to cross Irish airspace.

Now it is using repressive policing tactics, reminiscent of the UK government’s war on anti-genocide speech, journalism and protest, against Irish mammies for demanding an end to Israel’s slaughter of children and mothers in Gaza – a repression that is just as much against the wishes of Irish people as Starmer’s is against the will of British people, most of whom want an immediate end to the genocide.

Human rights expert Craig Mokhiber said last week that the world is descending into darkness because of international governments colluding with Israel in its mass murder in Gaza and assaulting their own citizens democratic rights to protect the racist occupation. The British government has long decided to side with the occupiers, blockaders and war criminals; the Irish government must stop being Jekyll and Hyde and make its mind up on which side of history it wants to stand.

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