For a long time the Irish police did not recognize racism as a form of discrimination. Meaning that the state was not aware or have any official record of the extent of racism in the country. everyday people from migrant backgrounds face prejudice in their workplace, homes, schools and colleges. It is important that institutional and State bodies implement adequate policies and procedures to ensure that racism is combated within Ireland. Without proper support from their institutions people of color and people of migrant backgrounds will continue to be impacted by discrimination and institutional racism throughout their daily lives.

At this stage in the genocide it is unbelievable that Ireland has a powerful bill, that could help the people of Palestine, waiting in the wings to be enacted since 2018. It took immense effort from many political, academic and legal minds to get it passed through our legislature. There is no legal excuse for stalling it any longer. To quote Sen. Frances Black “... it’s not a legal issue, it’s a question of political will. The weight of legal advice makes it clear that we can pursue this if we’re willing to be brave about it – we need to stand up and show leadership”. (Irish times, 13 Jun 2020.) Something has to begin the process of turning the tide on the genocide in Palestine, especially Gaza. The OTB has been identified by multiple organisations nationally and internationally as the single most important and effective action that Ireland as a nation can take, at this time in April 2024, . Enacting the OTB can without doubt have a ripple effect throughout the world. Let's throw the pebble in the ocean of support for Palestine and see it do the work it was always intended to achieve.

Citibank, who are facilitating the supply of billions of pounds of Israeli weapons and enabling the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, [1] are also one of the main sponsors of this year's Belfast Pride Festival - the biggest LGBTQIA+ event in the city. This is pinkwashing at its very worst - using Belfast Pride and our LGBTQIA+ community to distract from their brutal business practices. Not only are they supporting weapons deals, Citibank is also funding several fossil fuel companies to drill for gas off Gaza, [3] - as thousands of innocent people are being massacred, and famine looms [4] as a result of Israel’s brutal siege. Israel has no right to grant licenses to companies to drill for oil or gas in the Palestinian territory. Fossil fuels have always been tied up with war and to extract oil and gas from a region whose population are being starved to death and brutally murdered, is a war crime. We demand that Belfast Pride Festival drops Citibank as one of its main sponsors! [1] https://www.bankingonsolidarity.org/citibank-and-palestinians-a-cruel-status-quo/ [2] https://fossilfreeciti.org/ [3] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/6/israel-is-pillaging-not-just-gazas-cities-but-also-its-waters [4] https://www.politico.eu/article/famine-is-imminent-gaza-un-food-israel-hamas-hunger/

We cannot allow a country that is deliberately killing aid workers and journalists, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians, destroying hospitals, starving people, to sing alongside us. Allowing Israel to take part in the Eurovision would send an implicit message to the world that breaking international humanitarian law over and over again is acceptable.

Having a large mural of US president Joe Biden in Ballina reflects very badly on the people of Ballina, Mayo and Ireland who hold very different views to Joe regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

*This description is extracted from a broader counter-statement endorsed by multiple societies against an email sent by Maynooth University, which can be read here https://publuu.com/flip-book/392331/889456 * I am a student/staff of Maynooth University and you do not have my support in your statement regarding the Israeli Apartheid of Palestine. It is disgraceful to email the community 3 days after the International Court of Justice's decision that there was a plausible case for Israel to answer and ordering it to take action to "prevent genocide". The fact of the matter is that choosing neutrality instead of taking a stance against Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people is enabling a continued violation of human rights. Your statement was released within the minute following your call for submissions regarding Social Justice Week. It is deeply hypocritical to discuss the concept of peace but choose not to actively support the ceasefire in your position of influence. I compare your actions to Maynooth University's statement condemning the invasion of Ukraine only one day after Russian launched their military campaign. Thus, your statement is a clear demonstration of Maynooth University's endorsement of the current atrocities being committed by the Israeli government. over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and over 6,000 Palestinians were killed as part of an ethnic cleansing decades before the 7th of October . To be pro-Palestinian is not ‘anti-Semitic’ but critical of Israel’s state-sponsored terrorism in pursuit of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. Indeed, such claim is an effort to silence teachings about the Palestine cause. This is not an equal-sided conflict but an anti-colonial war which an Irish university should viscerally understand the impact of. Since the 7th of October, all universities in Gaza have been annihilated and the Israeli-occupied West Bank is being illegally struck by drones. Moreover, since the 7th of October, over 25,000 Palestinian people have been murdered by Israel; thousand-year-old native olive trees of Bethlehem have been uprooted; and over 1.5 million Palestinians have been displaced across the Gaza strip. In other words, the number of students and staff currently attending Maynooth has been killed twice. Do not misunderstand, I am appalled by the 7th of October attack. Yet, I also acknowledge that Hamas was financially supported by the Israeli military and politicians for years and mere months prior to the 7th of October to destabilise Palestinian democracy. The Israeli government has been creating propaganda targeting the Western audience to dismiss decades of the Palestinian genocide as a 'right to defend itself’ . Vice-President, your EDI office and the executives have failed to showcase the critical analysis about global humanitarian issues that this academic institution aims to foster in our students and Staff. Although your email claimed to portray the university as neutral, this is far from the truth due to the continuation of the university’s connection with companies profiting from this genocide, such as Starbucks and Intel, with the latter just recently donating a grant of €150,000 to the building of a new robotics lab on campus. Intel operates four development and production sites in Israel, including a manufacturing plant 42km from the Gaza strip. Amid the genocide, Intel announced its plan to expand the Kiryat gat plant, with Netanahu saying it was the largest investment ever in Israel, and the Israeli Finance minister stating “This investment, at a time when Israel wages war against utter wickedness, a war in which good must defeat evil, is an investment in the right and righteous values that spell progress for humanity,”. The university must divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, boycott products supporting Israel and pressure the Irish government to demand an internationally-enforced ceasefire now. As Desmond Tutu famously said ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice have chosen the side of the oppressor’.

The annual White House visit is enormously symbolic. For Irish Politicians to boycott the Biden Administration, it could weaken America's continuing support for Israel. It would also send ripples across the world and further highlight the plight of the Palestinian people on a global stage. It sends a signal that Ireland and the vast majority of the people in this country, says no to this genocide, opposes what is happening and opposes US support for it. It's important that the government and all politicians say they will not be going to shake hands with Joe Biden and other members of the US administration. Exact Wording of the motions to be proposed on Monday 12th - 1) Carlow Council agrees apartheid Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, including over 10,000 children. Many more have been seriously injured and traumatised, almost 2 million people are displaced and face a catastrophic humanitarian crisis with famine conditions. Carlow Council commends the mass movement that has erupted across Ireland against the violence in recent months. 2) Carlow Council notes that Israel's murderous campaign of collective punishment is highly dependent on the military, financial and political support of Joe Biden and the US government in particular. This council also notes the Biden Administration has opposed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, and that Biden has personally bypassed Congress to transfer arms to Israel during the genocidal war that will cause widespread death and suffering in Gaza. Therefore this council will write to the Irish Taoiseach and all political parties, calling on them not to attend St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the White House, nor to meet with President Joe Biden or any representative of his administration as part of the St Patrick’s Day events. Accordingly, members of this Council expected to travel to the U.S. will instead invite Irish-American associations with links to Carlow to travel to Carlow to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Although Israel has tried to suppress and discredit information leaving Gaza, including by murdering over 100 journalists, thanks to the courage and determination of those men and women we can see the scale of brutality and destruction being wrought in Gaza through social media. It is the duty of RTÉ as Ireland's national broadcaster to tell the truth about what is happening in Gaza. By suppressing information, by playing into Israeli narratives and ignoring credible reports of war crimes, RTÉ becomes complicit in the crimes being committed against the Palestinian people. The Irish people have a right to know about those crimes, not least because they are being funded and supported by countries with which we enjoy the closest of cultural and economic relations.

We are teachers; we teach children. We teach them about society and how they will grow up to be full participants in society. We teach them about empathy and solidarity; and we teach them, when they see obvious injustice, that they should act. We are horrified to be witnessing a deliberate, catastrophic humanitarian tragedy being inflicted on Gaza. We say this because we do not believe that the killing of children can be justified as "collateral damage," in the pursuit of a murderous, illusory, self-defeating and futile goal. Nor do we accept assurances that efforts are being made to avoid the deaths of children. Since October the 7th, over 13,000 children have died violently in Gaza; 4551 of them were school students. An additional 8,193 children have suffered injuries. We teach children every day, we know that these are not just numbers. Each of these children is as precious as your own child. These are innocent lives, cut short in the most barbaric manner. To date, 231 of our teaching colleagues in Gaza have been murdered, and 762 injured in brutal attacks by the Israeli army, which has been given billions of dollars by the United States to destroy Gaza. Schools - the bastions of hope and enlightenment - are being mercilessly and illegally targeted. A staggering 281 schools have been bombed or damaged; 83 are severely damaged; one-third are inoperable; and seven are utterly destroyed. To compound this tragedy, 133 schools are now makeshift shelters for displaced civilians, clinging to the vain hope that schools will not be targeted. We cannot turn a blind eye to the unambiguous war crimes that are being committed; to the genocidal assertions made by members of the Israeli cabinet; nor to the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, to facilitiate colonisation of their land. If you also believe that the mass slaughter of children, the assassination of teachers and the destruction of the educational system of Gaza is unacceptable, then we ask you to join us in saying stop. Just stop. Simply stop. We, the undersigned teachers from every corner of the globe, urgently demand you use your influence and resources to champion an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and in the West Bank. The time for diplomatic solutions and decisive action is now. We demand an immediate permanent ceasefire and the effective application of international law. Your contribution doesn't mean you are pro one group or against another. Your petition means you are pro humanity

We need your support to ensure a majority of TDs in Dáil Éireann back our motion calling for the Government to: - Intensify its advocacy for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages. - Provide strong leadership at EU level to advocate for economic sanctions on Israel, including: - Suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis of a serious breach of the essential elements human rights clause in that agreement. - Suspension of the EU-Israel Horizon Europe Association Agreement and Israel’s access to the €95 billion Horizon Europe fund for research and innovation. - Make a referral to the International Criminal Court requesting that it investigate whether members of the Israeli government and military have committed war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza. - Enact the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023 as a matter of urgency. - Withdraw the diplomatic status of the Israeli Ambassador given the failure of the Israeli State to cease the deliberate targeting of civilians, journalists, UN staff and healthcare workers. - Pursue all possible avenues at the EU and the UN to build an international alliance for peace to provide a pathway away from violence and back to the negotiation table.

It's clear that the UN Security Council is deadlocked by US vetoes and, as a result, is unable to bring about peace in Gaza. The recent UN General Assembly verdict, calling for a humanitarian truce, has been clearly ignored by the Israeli government as bombings, mass starvation and ground invasions continue to be carried out. The United States' veto is blocking the UN Security Council from taking action. The death toll in Gaza is continuing to rise and until the bombings stop and water, healthcare and other vital services are restored then thousands more are doomed to die from the violence, dehydration, starvation and outbreaks of deadly disease. Ireland must support an immediate ceasefire at the UN Emergency General Assembly under the Uniting for Peace Resolution. The outcome of this may be backed by the use of U.N. armed peacekeepers when necessary, as a last resort, in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression. It's clear that rhetoric alone has not been enough to stop Netanyahu's government from continuing to carry out a genocide in Gaza. The enforceable nature of a U4P is required to ensure an immediate ceasefire and an end to the unimaginable devastation that is happening every day in Gaza.

The Pakistani community in Ireland are 1000s in number. They have been a part of society for many years and contribute widely to Irish society. They also have a deep rooted connection with their families overseas. Currently, Pakistanis are facing some of the worst human rights violations and political victimisation. Pakistanis around the world are exercising their right to freedom of speech to speak out against such human rights violations. Unfortunately, these Pakistanis who are using their right to freedom of expression against human rights violations back home, have been receiving threats and harassment openly from undercover agents living in Ireland. These agents have openly claimed on social media they have spied on them and leaked their data to foreign agencies which has resulted in raids/serious harassment of their families (women and children) overseas. We have already received complaints from healthcare workers whose families have been harassed and threatened back home. We strongly condemn such unlawful activities by these agents in Ireland and urge immediate action from Irish human rights and law enforcement agents against them. These agents also claim they are working in collaboration with the Pakistani Embassy in Ireland to breach personal data (GDPR) and to promote personal/political victimisation. We strongly urge the Pakistani Ambassador to Ireland to take notice of this and pass an official statement on this. Please sign and share to report such criminal activities in Ireland and to hold these agents accountable for their actions P.S. We have evidence of these agents that we can provide to the relevant authorities