Flashpoint Dublin

I was caught off guard by chants of “Allah Akbar” while traveling down the streets of Dublin’s financial district. The chants grew louder as a parade of Palestinian flags and pickets of protestors reached the crest of the street. Their leader was ahead of the pack carrying a baby doll wrapped in a bloody cloth screaming for the death of Israel. The followers joined in the chants and songs of the mob, representing the voices of those who could not be heard, the victims of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

The violence of the December 2008 Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has created a ripple effect of restlessness and upheaval amongst Israeli and Palestinian sympathizers alike, this ripple has now reached the center of Dublin and has no signs of loosing its momentum.

Clash. The Palestinian protesters were met by The Gardai, an Irish police force assigned to supervise and maintain order during the protest. Barriers lined the causeway that would serve as a buffer zone, separating the Palestinian protestors from the Israeli sympathizers that made their way to the assembly. The backdrop for the demonstration became the House of Parliament, a symbolic representation of a republic’s strength and as a forum for the voices of its people to be heard. The Israeli sympathizers approached canopied by a sea of Israeli and Irish flags. The screams of the Palestinians grew louder and more threatening. The younger protesters full of energy and vigor began to shove their way to the barrier to taunt the approaching Israeli sympathizers. The Israeli supporters didn’t pause or flinch, moving to a distance of mere feet from the frontline of the Palestinian supporters. Both sides screamed to an empty parliament building, the Gardai being their only direct audience.

I treaded my way to the Israeli front. A timid looking woman with a red knit cap caught my eye. She was waving an Israeli flag towards the back of the crowd. I asked if she was Jewish, she appeared as if she was about to laugh but immediately caught her self. She told me that she was Catholic but supported the Israeli offensive. She made connections of an Israel surrounded by an Islamic nation, to a past Ireland controlled and subjugated by the British Empire. Israel was a victim, a cornered prey that had to leash outward to defend itself. To Diane the correlation was all to clear.

Separated by thousand of miles and ranges of geography, voices of the victims and oppressed cried out. On January 12th in the Emerald Isle the tensions and struggles of the Middle East echoed out in thunderous demonstration.