Palestinian Protest

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday June 05, 2003 16:57 by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

Brief description of protest outside the Israeli Embassy

Since 9am this morning the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign has maintained a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge to mark the 36th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The amount of people there has varied over the day with a number of people expected to arrive after work. There has been a consistent presence however with people coming and going when they can get a few free hours from work and when I arrived shortly after 2pm there was about eight or nine people present.

Protestors held signs calling on passing motorists to 'Beep for Palestine' and the protest was a colourful one with several banners, balloons in the Palestinian colours and a great deal of noise generated by whistles and a megaphone.

Indeed earlier in the day the Gardai had been forced to intervene to prevent protestors using air-horns as the noise was disuptive. There was also a significant Garda presence earlier in the day though by the time I arrived there was only one or two of them about the place keeping an eye on things.

The reaction from motorists and passers-by was a very positive one with a great many people expressing support, one taxi driver slowing down to shout Anti-Sharon slogans.

The protest is going to continue into the evening so if you get a chance to get down there, all are welcome.