[Dublin] Justice for Palestine – Protest Biden’s Visit!
The Biden Administration, and Biden personally, continues to back Apartheid Israel to the hilt in its unceasing war on the indigenous Palestinian people – whether it’s financial, diplomatic or military support. For this reason, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is supporting this protest against the visit of Biden to Ireland.
PROTEST BIDEN’S VISIT
NO TO US IMPERIALISM | DEFEND IRISH NEUTRALITY | JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
Wednesday 12th April @ 5pm
GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
To protest US President Joe Biden’s visit to Ireland, political parties, solidarity organisations, students and anti-war activists will gather at the GPO at 5pm on Wednesday 12th April to highlight the dangerous and destructive nature of US militarism for people and the planet.
WARMONGERING
In response to its declining economic dominance, Biden is strengthening US imperialism’s military presence around the globe. In Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the US seeks to confront its main economic and political rivals; most notably through a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and increased tensions with China. Aside from killing, maiming and destruction, the business of war is a key driver of climate change, pushing us ever closer to environmental catastrophe.
Twenty years ago Biden was one of the main drivers of the war on Iraq. As chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he and George W. Bush persuaded the public to back the war. Biden holds responsibility for hundreds of thousands of deaths and for devastation of Iraq and the surrounding region since the invasion. Today US imperialism continues its warmongering in the Middle East; most recently through providing bombers and weaponry to the Saudi Arabian dictatorship as it continues a brutal war against the people of Yemen.
In Latin America, US-backed coups and attempted-coups continue, as do inhumane US-led blockades and sanctions. These have resulted in the immiseration of millions of working class people; in particular in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
US Military expenditure and the consequential destruction of earth’s land and resources are inseparably linked. It is the largest user of fossil fuels and energy overall in any US capacity, and when military is compared by itself to nation states as a whole, they sit 47th in global emissions- with 51 million metric tonnes deployed for sinister purposes. The costs of war are fundamentally ruining the lives of tens of millions of innocent people in the Global South.
IRISH NEUTRALITY
Biden’s visit cannot be separated from successive Irish governments’ undermining of our neutrality. They aim to draw closer to NATO and already have full-on involvement with EU military operations. They seek to get rid of Ireland’s neutrality, despite the fact that the majority of Irish people are in favour of keeping it. Meanwhile, US troops, weapons and military vehicles continue to pass through Shannon Airport on a regular basis, en route to raining death and destruction upon the peoples of the world. Magilligan Point is used in Derry for weapon production, practice, and sales, mostly to the US. The occupation of the six counties also highlights a serious infringement on our supposed neutrality; a chokehold in US and other imperialist war crimes.
PALESTINE
The US is the world’s most consistent political and financial backer of the Israeli Apartheid regime and occupation of Palestine. This has not changed under Biden. From bombing Gaza, to illegal settlements, to mass incarceration of political and child prisoners, to murderous invasions of Palestinian cities, Biden has defended Israel to the hilt, including at the UN Security Council. Biden is a self-proclaimed Zionist, and has pushed throughout his political career for unconditional US support for the Apartheid state. It is beyond hypocritical for Biden to come to Ireland to discuss peace while ensuring the Israeli war machine is free to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
For these reasons and more, we ask you to join us to say that warmonger and Imperialist-in-Chief Biden is not welcome in Ireland!
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