At a rally outside Shannon Airport on September 8^th Shannonwatch and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) presented a letter to An Garda Siochana calling on them to inspect US military and military contracted aircraft using Shannon Airport.

The letter stated that no foreign military aircraft likely to be involved in the genocide in Gaza should be allowed to transit through Irish territory or airspace. But until such time as that is the case, it called on the Gardai to take all appropriate actions to avoid complicity in the killing of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.

Shannonwatch and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign were joined by hundreds of people from around Ireland at Sunday’s rally. A number of other peace groups including the Irish Anti-War Movement and Afri were also represented at it.

 “Shannon has had over two decades of complicity in wars in the Middle East.” said a Shannnonwatch spokesperson. “Millions of people have been affected by those wars, and Ireland has abandoned its neutrality to support US warmongering. These days we can see exactly what US weapons are being used for in Gaza. It is brutal, and Ireland should not be facilitating it in any way.”

“The United States has been the primary supporter of the Israeli government and its military forces in recent decades, and especially since October 2023” the spokesperson continued. “And over the last 11 months, hundreds of US military and military-contracted aircraft have passed through Shannon Airport or Irish airspace. Most of these aircraft have been going to and from the Middle East, and several have landed in Israel.”

Shannonwatch and others have repeatedly brought these matters to the attention of Gardai at Shannon and to the attention of the Irish Government. However, no actions have been taken to address the support being provided to Israel via Ireland.

At the peace rally Roman Shortall, a journalist with The Ditch who have reported on eight different flights with munitions that passed through Irish airspace on their way to Israel since October 2023, outlined how these planes carried a total of over 57 tonnes of weaponry to Israel.

The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have issued a number of rulings, advisory opinions and requests for arrest warrants in connection with war crimes, ‘plausible’ genocide and illegal occupations, committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. Shannonwatch and the IPSC have pointed out that all member states of the United Nations, including Ireland, and their officials are obliged to fully cooperate with these courts, and to avoid complicity with the crimes listed.

“This responsibility covers the facilitation of weapons supply to Israel” said Sunday’s rally organisers.

The rally also called for the Irish Government to urgently enact the Occupied Territories Bill that would ban and criminalize trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill and the Arms Embargo Bill.