Tens of thousands of people marched through Dublin city centre on Saturday afternoon calling for the Central Bank of Ireland to “stop funding genocide” through the facilitation of the sale of Israeli bonds.
Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon told protesters he would be taking a legal case against the Central Bank over the issue and would lodge papers next week.
The Dublin Central TD has previously written to the bank’s governor, Gabriel Makhlouf, claiming that investors in Israeli bonds approved by the Central Bank risk being legally complicit in genocide in Gaza.
The bank is the designated authority in relation to the sale of Israeli bonds in the EU, and has determined the securities meet the standards of the bloc’s prospectus regulations.
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Protesters leading the demonstration carried a giant sphere in the style of the logo of Central Bank with the words “stop funding genocide” painted on it.
Saturday marked the 16th national demonstration of its kind since October 2023, with organisers estimating more than 70,000 were in attendance.
Protesters draped in Palestinian flags and keffiyehs arrived in droves at the Garden of Remembrance before marching to Leinster House.
The demonstration was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and was backed by more than 170 organisations, according to the IPSC.
The group called for the Government to enact sanctions against Israel and to fully enact the Occupied Territories Bill.
The Government has committed to implementing the Bill, which would ban trade in goods with the occupied Palestinian territories, and it is due before the Dáil in autumn. Protesters on Saturday called on the Government to include a ban on trade in services in the Bill.
They also called for the cessation of use of Irish airspace for transporting weapons.
Traffic was brought to a standstill as the march travelled down O’Connell Street, through College Green and up Dawson Street.
At a rally outside the Dáil, which filled the length of Molesworth Street, Marah Nijim, a 23-year-old student from Gaza told how her brother had recently been hospitalised due to starvation.
“It’s kind of heavy for me to talk now because I just got the news that my brother is in hospital because of a lack of food and because of the starvation,” she said.
“I’m here to speak about my home, the one that I was forced to leave without any clothes, without anything but what I was wearing.”
“This war took away from me my entire life,” she told the crowds who had gathered outside Leinster House.
Mr Gannon told the crowd about his legal case against the Central Bank of Ireland.
He said he would keep his speech brief because “politicians have done too much talking and we haven’t done enough in terms of acting, legislating and sanction”.
“The case is moral. A genocide is happening. We are obligated to prevent it. So I will take it as far as it needs to go. We are lodging papers on Tuesday,” he said.
IPSC chairperson Zoe Lawlor described it as “shameful” that the Government “lets the US military use Shannon Airport” to transport Israeli weapons.
“Israel does not commit this genocide alone. It does so with the weapons, the money and the political cover it gets from the US and the EU,” she told the crowd. .
Ms Lawlor condemned the Government, saying “their actions do not match their words”.
She spoke about the refusal of visas for 33 young GAA players from Palestine who had planned to tour Ireland.
“They have delayed the visas of the Lajee dancers and football team. They are blocking the students in Gaza who already have been accepted to Irish universities,” she said.
During a break in the speeches, Galway singer Declan O’Rourke performed World on Fire, which he dedicated to “the people of Palestine”.
Other speakers at the rally included: Mohamed Migdad, an economics lecturer from Gaza; Dunnes Stores striker Mary Manning; Bernard Joyce, director of the Irish Traveller Movement; and Conor O’Neill of the Pass the Occupied Territories Bill Campaign.
