People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin has said said Donald Trump’s plan to seize Palestine should be rejected and political parties should boycott St Patrick’s Day events at the White House in Washington.
Said the Foyleside councillor: “Trump’s directive to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the ceasefire and relaunch its genocidal war on the people of Gaza are the actions of a tyrant.
“We have submitted a motion to the February full Council meeting urging all parties and representatives to back the Palestine solidarity movement campaign to boycott Trump’s White House on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Going to the White House last March made absolutely no difference to US support for the Gaza genocide. Biden paid no heed to Irish representatives and Trump will be no different. This is simply about legitimising Trump.
“Trump has announced the US will seize Gaza and ethnically cleanse the entire population. It’s also expected he will endorse the annexation of the West Bank by Israel.
“This is the height of imperial arrogance. Ignorant in the extreme. Criminal in the extreme.
“The United States government has sponsored Israeli terrorism on the Palestinian people for decades, and now Trump proposes the US will finish the job.
“Trump’s White House is rounding up immigrants, encouraging misogyny and racism, embracing far-right movements and attacking the LGBTQ community.
“We should stand in solidarity with Palestinians, the 40 million Americans living in poverty in the US, the millions denied healthcare and all those on the receiving end of ramped-up discrimination.
“They are our allies and the people we should speak to, not Trump and his cabinet of billionaires.
“Derry City and Strabane District Council supports the Palestinian-led movement to boycott, divest from and sanction (BDS) the apartheid Israeli state and those complicit with it.
Our Council, our political representatives and Ireland should help lead the opposition to Trump’s seizure of Gaza and removal of Palestinians from their homeland.
Not indulging Trump in the White House on St. Patrick’s Day will send a powerful message of solidarity to Palestinians and everyone in the line of fire from his reactionary domestic and global policies.”
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