PROTESTERS occupied Shannon Airport this past weekend in a show of solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Members of Dublin for Gaza and Action for Palestine demanded a halt to the passage of US weapons through Shannon Airport to Israel.
The anti-war protesters hit out that 258 US military planes carrying munitions were allowed to land in the airport in 2023.
The campaigners, carrying banners which read “no weapons to Israel”, demanded sanctions from Defence Minister Micheál Martin and the Department of Transport.
Around 30 chanting activists entered the departures hall at Shannon Airport in Sunday’s protest. A second group took up position at the roundabout at the airport’s entrance.
The protest, organisers said, were to coincide with the planned launch date of Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have been relocated from northern regions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that he plans to continue with a land attack in the civilian-packed city on the southern Gaza Strip during the holy month of Ramadan.
Over 1.5 million starving and displaced people are currently crammed into Gaza’s southernmost city, fearing that they will spend Ramadan under Israeli fire, amid reports that 100 people are dying each day in Israeli air attacks on Rafah.
Protesters in Shannon called on the Irish Government to either show solidarity with the people trapped in Rafah or be complicit in the latest horror unfolding in Gaza. They urged Minister Martin to refuse permission to US military aircraft from landing in Irish airports.
