Ireland-Palestine SolidariTree
Channel: Afri
Date: 2016-06-30

Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah and Dublin’s Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh plant an olive tree and an ash tree, together called the SolidariTree, in Dublin’s Poppintree Park to symbolise the support of the people of Dublin and Ireland for the Palestinian people.

The Mayor of Dublin Críona Ní Dhálaigh recalls Dr. Mads Gilbert of Gaza’s advocacy of boycott as a strategy of resistance to Israeli aggression.

“These trees were presented to us last summer, on the first anniversary of the terrible 2014 bombardment of Gaza that left so many innocent dead, including 551 children. They were presented by Dr. Mads Gilbert, a hero of mine, surgeon of El Shifa hospital in Gaza. During his address in the Mansion House, he stressed the importance of boycott against Israeli produce as a strategy of international peaceful mass action. The word “boycott” was invented in Ireland in 1880, named after ruthless landlord’s agent Captain Charles Boycott. Dublin’s Dunnes Stores strikers showed in the 1980s what a powerful instrument boycott is when they refused to handle South African goods, and were commended by Nelson Mandela for their role in the dismantling of the apartheid regime”.

Poet Rafeef Ziadah, who visited President Michael D. Higgins the previous day for an official Courtesy Call, says:

“This month Palestinians mark 68 years since the nakba, the word we use for catastrophe, what happened to us in 1948 when we were ethnically cleansed from our homes to become the world’s largest refugee population. For 68 years to this day, we have not been allowed to return to our homes. So I know how much it means for this olive tree to have a home right now. Olive trees symbolise our connection to our land, and our roots in our land that have not been stamped away by Israeli military aggression, occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid. 68 years on, the Israeli state has not been able to erase my people. As a matter of fact, 68 years on, my people in Palestine, and every Palestinian in exile continues to teach life, and continues to be rooted in Palestine”.

Rafeef continues:

“It’s inspiring and incredible that the word “boycott” was coined in this country. The Irish people have always shown solidarity to oppressed communities around the world. We Palestinians don’t only teach life, we also learn from others. And from the Irish people, we have learned your resilience, your strength, and we have learned that boycott is a very, very strong tool that we are going to use. And just as the Dunnes Stores strikers here helped by becoming a leading light to end apartheid in South Africa, we hope that you will do the same, and engage in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and that your beautiful city of Dublin will be apartheid-free”.

Four days later, Rafeef performs to a sellout audience and a standing ovation in Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey Theatre founded by the poet WB Yeats in 1904.

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