Dublin: IPSC National Rally and Public Meeting commemorating the Balfour Declaration

Rally @ 2pm, British Embassy, Ballsbridge, D4 / Meeting: 3.30pm, Mount Herbert Hotel, Sandymount, D4

The IPSC is holding a picket and rally at the British Embassy (followed by a public meeting in the Mount Herbert Hotel) in Ballsbridge on the 1st Novemeber. The aim of this event to highlight the role of British Imperialism in the partition of Palestine, and its collaboration with the Israeli occupation and the crimes and abuses of the Israeli State ever since.

Speakers at the event will be Professor Ilan Pappe (Israeli historian of the Nakba), Anaheed al-Hardan (Palestinian Academic specialising in refugee studies), Jeremy Corbyn MP (British Labour Party and patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Britain) , Professor Mahmoud Muhareb (Political science professor in Al-Quds University and member of the Arab Balad Party in Israel), Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD (Sinn Fein spokesperson on Foreign Affairs) and a speaker from the British PSC.

On 2nd November 1917, in furtherance of its imperial ambitions in the Middle East, the British Government under Lloyd George made a promise to the Zionist Federation that it would 'establish a national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine. This promise, contained in a letter sent by Lord Arthur Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, to Baron Rothschild, was made without consulting the people of Palestine who hoped for independence from the imperial powers. It came to be known as the 'Balfour Declaration'.

Balfour, a Tory grandee, was a suitable envoy. As Secretary of State for Ireland he had long opposed Home Rule. These imperial efforts to frustrate the colonised peoples of Ireland and Palestine would yield the same tragic results for both: conflict, suffering and Partition. A bitter legacy remains to this day especially for the colonised people of Palestine whose very survival seems a matter of indifference to the powerful.

In this 60th Nakba commemoration year, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign wishes to publicly indict British colonial policy as the root cause of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. We will therefore hold a symbolic picket of and rally at the British Embassy in Dublin on Saturday 1st November, anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Speeches by prominent political figures in support of this will then be held in a nearby hotel. Please join us on the day.

Related Link: http://www.ipsc.ie