An emergency rally in solidarity with the people of Palestine will take place in Galway city centre on Saturday, July 27, from 2.45pm.
In the week in which the International Court of Justice (ICJ ) ruled that Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, a rally entitled ‘From the River to the Square’ will commence at Galway Cathedral at 2.45pm.
People are asked to assemble at the Cathedral end of Droichead an Dóchais, the new pedestrian footbridge, before marching together in solidarity along by the River Corrib and up through the pedestrianised heart of the city for a rally at Eyre Square.
Members of the public have expressed huge interest in staging a rally in Galway at information stalls for Palestine on Shop Street over recent weekends and participants are being asked to bring Palestinian flags, family members, and friends.
Many Galway people travelled to Dublin last weekend for a huge national demonstration to call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has seen more than 39,000 Palestinians being murdered since October in a tiny strip of land which is less than half the size of Co. Louth.
Members of the Galway branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC ) are organising this emergency rally this weekend, to call for an end to Israel’s ongoing aggression in Gaza, its illegal occupation, and decades-long apartheid regime over the Palestinian people.
“This month also marks the tenth anniversary of the revival of the Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign in its current format, when hundreds took to the streets of Galway to express outrage at Israel’s brutal assault on the people of Gaza at that time,” said the Co-Chairperson of the Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ciaran Tierney.
“During the summer of 2014, people in Galway were outraged that some 2,251 Palestinians were murdered by Israel, including 551 children, in one of the most crowded places on earth. The fact that we have been staging these kinds of events on the streets of Galway for a decade now shows that the terrible injustice in Palestine did not begin last October.
“The Palestinian people need meaningful solidarity. They also need concrete measures, including diplomatic, economic, financial, and cultural sanctions on Israel. There is an obligation on all states to end the illegal occupation of Palestine. While the international community needs to bring an end to the horrors in Gaza, it was also confirmed this week that a total of 143 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October.”
Consultant surgeon Professor Nick Maynard, who addressed a Galway PSC rally in Eyre Square at the end of March, said this week that he was shocked by the scenes of starvation he witnessed while volunteering for Medical Aid for Palestinians in Gaza recently.
“I have seen things in Gaza which I never could have imagined I would see in a civilised world,” said Professor Maynard. “I’ve witnessed the direct targeting of hospitals, the killing of healthcare workers, I’ve met people who have been abducted and tortured by the Israeil Occupation Forces.”
The rally through the streets of Galway will conclude at the bottom end of Eyre Square on Saturday, where it will be addressed by a small number of speakers and singers from both Ireland and Palestine.
Through rallies, vigils, talks, information stalls, and concerts, the people of Galway have shown unbelievable support for the people of Palestine since October and GPSC are asking people to join them again, and bring a friend, this Saturday.
