Justice For Palestine
Comhlámh’s Justice for Palestine Group is dedicated to achieving justice for the Palestinian People. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s longest running conflicts and has seen the rights of Palestinians violated in numerous ways. This oppression is made possible by the support of countries and businesses that continue to support Israel economically through business and investment. As a group, we want to take a stand against Israel’s brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. We are against Israel’s discriminatory policies against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Israel’s refusal to recognise the rights of Palestinian refugees.
The Justice for Palestine Group has a number of objectives and ongoing actions.
1. Supporting the movement of Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS).
The BDS movement works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressures Israel to comply with international law. We support the BDS movement and recently hosted a panel discussion on BDS with three well-respected speakers: Fatin al Tamimi, Richard Falk and Omar Barghouti. You can watch the panel discussion here for free. Going forward, we plan to educate and support the public in making informed decisions in line with BDS’s ethos.
See link to the BDS website for more information: https://bdsmovement.net/
2. Continuing our support for the Occupied Territories Bill:
The Occupied Territories Bill (officially Control of Economic Activity Bill 2018) is a proposed Irish law that would ban and criminalize “trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under international law”, most notably Israeli settlements. The group created a petition calling on Fianna Fáil to continue their support for the OTB. We will continue to lobby the government regarding its inclusion in future plans.
3. Supporting and collaborating with other groups:
There are many groups already undertaking incredible work and we believe in supporting their initiatives, particularly Palestinian-led groups.
4. Educating the public and Comhlámh members:
One of our main aims is to generate awareness of Palestinian issues and highlight how we can be active citizens on the issues. We are currently working on several resources. These include information on which organisations can be supported, how to actively support BDS and templates of letters for lobbying the government to support Palestine better.
5. Engage with the Apartheid Free Zones Global Campaign:
The Apartheid Free Zones campaign promotes the creation of spaces of proactive solidarity with the Palestinian people. As citizens and people of conscience, we want to ensure that the spaces we participate in do not contribute to maintaining an apartheid regime or profit from grave human rights violations. We intend to engage with and highlight the work and actions related to the Apartheid Free Zones campaign and lobby for Apartheid Free Zones in organisations and businesses.
6. Promote Palestinian Products in Ireland:
We intend to conduct research in Ireland and provide a list of shops, restaurants and online websites where Palestinian products may be purchased.
We meet on the 1st and 3rd Monday at 6:30pm and meetings are open to new members.
Direct message us on any of our platforms or email us at justice4pal@comhlamh.org to learn more and get involved.
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