Thousands gathered in Dublin city centre Saturday for a protest march supporting Palestine. The march was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) as a ‘demonstration for Palestine: Three Years of Gaza Genocide’. It was supported by 160 civic groups.
The march began at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and the protesters marched to the Dáil where a rally took place. This is one of many demonstrations for Palestine as the IPSC have organised more throughout the country in the coming days.
The IPSC has said, “On the 3rd Anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we are again marching to highlight that the so-called ‘Gaza ceasefire’ remains an absolute fiction.”
They added, “We want sanctions on Israel now.”
One of the speakers read out a message from a student currently living in Palestine, she said, “Irish Universities chose us, they gave us full scholarships, but every one of our visa applications were refused. Yesterday, three appeals were approved, and they say thank you Ireland.”
She explained that 55 of their visa applications to study in Ireland have been refused. Their names must reach the evacuation list before October 15th to be included in the next internationally organised evacuations from Gaza at the end of October, according to the Irish Examiner.
Many students and academics are protesting the refusal of student visas for Palestinian students to study in Ireland. According to representatives from the ‘Universities of Sanctuary’ initiative, at least 31 out of 59 Palestinian students who have applied for visas and received either fully funded or partial scholarships from Irish colleges have been refused.
These include students who were due to begin their studies in the coming weeks at University College Dublin (UCD), University of Limerick (UL) and National College of Art and Design (NCAD), according to an article from Oonagh Smyth on RTÉ.
Transport for Ireland has stated that there will be nationwide traffic & transport service disruptions because of these demonstrations but civic groups, students and activists plan to continue to support Palestine.
