The Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine

To call on the Irish Government to recognise that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid and to take meaningful action to dismantle this apartheid system.

In November a group of civil society organisations came together to establish the Irish Anti-Apartheid for Palestine (IAAC-P). There are now more than twenty groups affiliated to the campaign with more coming on board in the coming months. The campaign is endorsed by the principal Palestinian civil society networks. New members since the launch in November are the Bloody Sunday Trust in Derry, and the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The IAAC-P will launch a campaign to enhance public awareness of Israel’s apartheid regime around the 75th anniversary of the Nakba on 15th May.

We are campaigning to persuade the Irish government to officially recognise Israel’s system of apartheid, and to take meaningful action internationally, at the bilateral and multilateral level, to demand an end to it.

Show your support and call on the Irish Government to recognise that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid and to take meaningful action to dismantle this apartheid system

The Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine

Over the last year, SADAKA has been working with others to form a broad coalition of civil society organisations, trade unions and academic experts to work together. The new Irish Anti-Apartheid Coalition for Palestine was launched on November 30th 2022 in Dublin.

Through shared actions, campaigns and advocacy initiatives the group has pledged to engage members of the Irish public and political representatives on the situation of Palestinians, and to build political support for effective measures by Ireland and the international community to condemn Israel’s settler-colonial regime and to end the crime of apartheid. In particular, it calls on Ireland and the international community to publicly recognise that the State of Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people and to take concrete measures to end this crime against humanity.

“I fully support the launch of this Ireland-Palestine anti-apartheid campaign. I hoped, after South Africa, that the world was finished with apartheid. Unfortunately, and sadly, that is not the case. Apartheid was not acceptable to the Irish people in the 1980s when we made our stand and it is not acceptable to them in 2022.”

- Mary Manning, the first Dunnes Stores worker to refuse to handle apartheid South Africa’s fruit in July 1984.

Speaking at the launch of the coalition, Senator Frances Black stated, “Ireland has a proud history of challenging apartheid in South Africa and Namibia. The coalition will draw on the rich vein of individual activism, public advocacy and political action in Ireland in the 1980s that was so successful in drawing international attention to the situation there and that ultimately helped bring about an end to the South African apartheid regime.”

And so, in January 2023 we began a series of actions to raise awareness on these issues and leave no doubt in the minds of our public representatives that this is an issue that their constituents want them to act on. If you would like to become involved in this work in your city, town, constituency or county, please contact us at newsletter@sadaka.ie and we will keep you informed as the plans develop.

New Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign calls on Ireland to take action on Israeli apartheid against Palestinians Campaign

Read the Press Release of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine.

Read an open letter, signed by members of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine, in the Irish Times

Read an open letter, signed by members of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine, in the Irish Times.

Learn more of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Campaign, and its request to support efforts at the UN to reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid to investigate Israeli apartheid.