A LIMERICK senator has condemned Mid West government politicians for what he deems their silence regarding US military use of Shannon Airport.
Senator Paul Gavan was speaking after attending a protest rally at Shannon Airport this past Saturday (October 13) that attracted around 5,000 people from across Ireland, calling for a half to use of the Mid West airport for US military flights.
The protest comes at the same time as reports that multiple flights have passed through Irish airspace carrying munitions destined for Israel.
It is understood that two were arrested at Saturday’s protest and charged in connection with alleged public order incidents.
Speaking after the protest, and one year on from the igniting of heated conflict in Palestine, the Sinn Féin senator said that “we know that since October of last year, there has been at least 11 direct military flights to or from Shannon to Israel. We know that each week we have military flights heading from Shannon to the Middle East where US play a key role in supporting the so called Israeli Defence Forces in their continuing occupation of Palestine and invasion of Lebanon.”
“We also know that Irish airspace has regularly been used to transport tonnes of weapons and ammunition to Israel. The Irish government have taken no action with regard to this practice,” Senator Gavan said.
“The thousands of people who gathered at Shannon on Saturday had one very simple message: end the US Military use of our civilian airport at Shannon. The fact is that the genocide that has been ongoing for over a year now is only possible because of US military support and arms supplies to Israel.”
Senator Gavan hit out at what he described as an ongoing silence from local politicians in Limerick and across the Mid West on the issue.
“As they prepare to ask the electorate to endorse them in a general election, they should explain that silence and why they have failed to date to make a clear call for the US to end arms supplies to Israel, and call on their government to end US Military use of Shannon,” he said.
“Already this week we have seen horrific footage of Gazan people being burned alive in their tents. The official death toll has reached over 41,000 men, women and children, while the Lancet has estimated the real death toll to be at least 186,000.
“The great American US Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King famously declared ‘our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’ It’s time for that silence to end,” he concluded.
