Two people were ejected from an event at Liberty Hall on Saturday night for heckling United States senator Bernie Sanders for refusing to describe the Israeli assault on Gaza as a genocide.
His speech largely focused on criticising Donald Trump’s presidency, winning him a prolonged standing ovation, but it also highlighted the divisions over his position on how to categorise the situation in the Middle East.
The two people were ejected from the closing session of the trade union backed Robert Tressell Festival, which was attended by President Michael D Higgins, for heckling Mr Sanders as he refused to label as genocide the Israeli assault that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry estimates.
Mr Sanders and his wife Jane O’Meara Sanders, who joined him on stage for a questions and answers session with Second Captains and Irish Times journalist Ken Early, roundly rejected the criticism.
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“What we should be focusing on is ending the destruction and changing policy,” he said. “Let’s be clear, 52,000 people have been killed, mostly women and children. Over 100,000 have been wounded with the entire infrastructure destroyed. That is horrible. That is barbaric. That is the concern we have but some people want to argue about a word which the United Nations is now working to define.”
Ms O’Meara Sanders said calling the current events genocide would alienate significant allies in the US, of which, she suggested, there were already too few, and provide opponents with an opportunity to shift the focus of the debate.
“The fact we’re spending billions of dollars on weapons for Israel would be just falling on deaf ears,” she said. “[Mr Sanders] wouldn’t have gotten 15 votes [for a recent Bill he introduced in the Senate to curtail military support to Israel] if he could be marginalised by a word.”
On Sunday, the couple were in Athy, Co Kildare to unveil a plaque to the anti-war song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya. Ms O’Meara Sanders’ family, the Coyles, trace their ancestors back to the Co Kildare town.
Her connection with the town and the nature of the anti-war song, which chimes with the Sanders’ status as peace activists, caused local man Colm Walsh to reach out to the pair.
To his surprise, and delight, they quickly replied to say they would visit.
“They came back within a half an hour. I went back and checked the email three times,” he said. “They are aware of the song as it is very much in the American folk tradition, where it has been covered by the likes of Bob Dylan and Janis Ian.”
Walsh was one of the founders of the Made of Athy initiative, which began in 2018, and erects plaques in memory of notable people with links to the south Kildare town.
The Liberty Hall event included many contributions on Gaza and Palestine including one from Omar Barghouti, via Zoom, from inside Israel.
Mr Barghouti, a prominent activist and proponent of cultural, academic and economic boycotts of Israel, was unable to attend the event due to the refusal of Israeli authorities to renew documentation he needed to travel. He argued in his address that the current conflict is a genocide.
Aside from the two audience members ejected for repeatedly interrupting Mr Sanders’ speech, the tone was generally respectful from what appeared to be an otherwise highly supportive crowd for the Vermont senator.
There were occasions during his attempts to directly engage with those present on the issue when it was obvious many others were critical of his position and he appeared to be annoyed by the shift in tone.
Earlier, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald participated in a discussion on the potential for a future left-wing coalition government with Labour’s Marie Sherlock, Sinéad Gibney of the Social Democrats and People Before Profit’s Ruth Coppinger.
During it, all four broadly backed increased collaboration between the parties and Ms McDonald said hers had not built the “relationships” it should before the last general election. She said she was “not going to make that mistake again”.
