People in Derry & Strabane urged to join Donegal March for Gaza this weekend
People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin is urging local people and businesses to take part in a march, as well as a planned weekend of workplace stoppages, in solidarity with Palestine.
At September’s Business and Culture Committee meeting councillor Harkin encouraged constituents to take part in an upcoming long march from Malin Head to Buncrana, which has been organised by Inishowen Palestine Solidarity Group and takes place on Saturday (September 13).
Councillor Harkin noted that the length of the march “almost exactly” mirrors the length of Gaza.
“It’ll be a challenge for anybody that wants to do it,” he added. “But people are encouraged to participate for whatever length they can, and it is keeping the focus on Gaza at a very, very crucial moment.”
He also highlighted planned workplace stoppages, taking place across Ireland on the weekend of September 18 to 21 and organised by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Councillor Harkin said: “I went to a meeting led by [BDS co-founder] Omar Barghouti, and he was calling on workers [and] trade unions in Ireland to organise strikes, and to also organise workplace boycotts of products that are complicit with genocide.
“This is very important, because we’re at the point now where governments haven’t listened.
“The British Government has once again said that there isn’t a genocide taking place in Gaza, which is absolutely shocking and shows that we can’t trust them.
“It is going to be up now to workers to disrupt business as usual, if we’re going to build up the pressure necessary to force governments to intervene.
“In Genoa and across Italy, dock workers have said they will strike in the coming weeks if the Sumud Flotilla, on its way to Gaza with aid and to break the siege, is interfered with.
“So I think that we’re at a pivotal moment [and] I would hope that this council would be supportive of work stoppages, and the Stormont Executive would get behind this action.”
Sinn Féin councillor Brian Harte said council must do “anything that we to highlight the plight of the people of Gaza”.
Councillor Harte concluded: “I watch with interest the flotilla, and we have a few people from Ireland that are there as well, so we hope they have a safe passage to Gaza.”
The march is being organised by Inishowen, Derry and Letterkenny branches of Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, together with the Strabane BDS group (Boycott, Divest, Sanction).
The Long March will start at Ireland’s most Northerly point, Banba’s Crown, Malin Head, at 7.30 a.m. on Saturday, September 13, winding its way through the Inishowen peninsula, finishing at Buncrana by approximately 7.30 p.m.
“We are marching from the Sea to the River.” said a spokesperson for the organising group, “25 miles in total, the length of Gaza.”
The march will be in five stages, with rest points in between. No one has to do the whole march, but some people are determined to march the whole way.
“We are marching to honour the dead of Gaza, and to demand a stop to this genocide,” the spokesperson said.