IPSC protest Deputy Israeli Ambassador's visit to City Hall

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Saturday January 17, 2009 15:20 by Kev - IPSC (pers cap)

On Friday 16th January 2009 members and supporters of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a protest outside Dublin City Hall in protest at the presence of the Deputy Israeli Ambassador Nadav Cohen.

Originally it was supposed to have a private meeting between members of the City Council and the Ambassador Zion Evrony where councillors were to have questioned him on Israel's assault on Gaza. However Evrony decided to send a subordinate in his place.

The Deputy snuck into and left the building by some unknown route, presumably to avoid being photographed near any kind of protest at the main doors.

The protesters were calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador and for Israeli officials to be tried for war crimes in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the IPSC said: "It is unsurprising that the Israeli Ambassador sent a subordinate in his place, and doubly unsurprising that the subordinate would not face the protests of the public. Like all bullies, they are cowards underneath. We demand that the Israeli Ambassador be expelled and the Irish Ambassador in Tel Aviv be recalled, and that Israeli officials face prosecution for War Crimes in Gaza. We call on the Irish public to mobilise in support of these demands and to protest wherever and whenever these representatives of the Israeli mass murder machine raise their heads."

Sinn Fein Councilor Daithi Doolan said, "Having meet with Mr. Cohen this morning I took the opportunity to directly challenge him to answer the allegations that Israel have been involved in War Crimes in Gaza. Not denying the allegations, Mr. Cohen made the cynical claim that the response by the United Nations that food and aid was destroyed in yesterday's attacks only proves that there is no food shortage in Gaza. This claim is nothing short of a disgrace."

Cllr. Doolan demanded that "the Irish government summon the Israeli Ambassador to answer the charges of War Crimes."