Dublin South West TD Paul Murphy will travel to Cairo with other delegates to take part in the global march to Gaza
Paul Murphy to take part in global march to Gaza
A Dublin South-West TD is heading to Gaza this week as part of a global movement to break the aid blockade in the region.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has announced that he will travel to Cairo this Thursday, June 12, with around 50 other Irish delegates, to take part in the Global March to Gaza.
He will join participants in Cairo on Thursday, before travelling by bus the following day to Al Arish, where thousands of activists from across the world will take part in a 48km march to the border crossing at Rafah to the north of Egypt’s Sinai region.
The plan is not to enter Gaza themselves, but to “press for the opening of the Rafah terminal to allow the humanitarian aid that is blocked at Rafah to finally enter Gaza and relieve the starvation facing the Palestinian people.”
“This is people taking action because their governments refuse to act,” Deputy Murphy said.
“For 19 months we have seen on our phones and on our screens a live-streamed genocide.
“Western governments, including the Irish government, have not only failed, but have been and continue to be complicit in Israel’s genocide.”
He said the Irish government had “failed its moral and legal duty to act” by continuing to allow weapons to be transported through Irish airspace and by not fully implementing the Occupied Territories Bill.
According to a spokesperson for People Before Profit, Deputy Murphy is scheduled to return to Ireland next Tuesday.
However, reports have emerged this Wednesday that Egyptian authorities have detained more than 200 people who planned to take part in the march.
“Over 200 participants were detained at Cairo airport or questioned at hotels across Cairo,” the march’s spokesperson Saif Abukeshek told the AFP news agency.
In a post on social media, Deputy Murphy claimed that three Irish participants were among those detained.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said that they had “been contacted by a small number of citizens and is providing consular assistance”.
“As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the details of individual cases.”
They also directed all travellers to Egypt to consult the relevant travel advice on their website.
