Palestine protest speaker ‘cannot process’ loss of friends in Gaza conflict
By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association
An Irish-based Palestinian journalist has said she “can’t possibly process the number of friends” she has lost during Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Eman Mohammed, a speaker at Saturday’s Palestine protest in Dublin, said she left Gaza after her one-year-old child was injured during a bombardment of her neighbourhood by Israeli forces in 2014.
Her family was able to go to the US to seek treatment for her child because of her Irish-American husband.
They moved to Ireland following the outbreak of the current conflict in October 2023, which she said felt like “coming home”.
Speaking before the march from Dublin’s City Hall to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Stephen’s Green, she said she hoped the event would emphasise “that we do not have a ceasefire”.
“We’ve had more than 100 days of this so-called ceasefire, and not a single day has gone by without Palestinians being murdered.”
The photographer said she “can’t comprehend” how many journalists have been killed in the conflict: “It’s just a shock that keeps on not being able to be processed.”
She said covering “something so hostile” had meant her network of journalists in Gaza were “more than just colleagues”.
She said, “I can’t possibly process the number of friends that I’ve lost.”
Ms Mohammed said her now 13-year-old daughter, Lateen, is doing well, but still needs check-ups and “we definitely go through scares, but she’s a perfect child.”
One of the protest organisers, Fatin Al Tamimi, said the demonstration aimed to send “solidarity and love to Palestinian people” as well as “thanking the Irish people for their solidarity and support”.
However, the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign vice-chairwoman also said they are calling on the Irish government for “actions, not empty words”.
“We want Israel to be sanctioned, and we want the Occupied Territories Bill to be passed.”
She said they are “asking them not to use the Irish space Shannon Airport for American war planes that were sent to kill Palestinians in Gaza”.
She also emphasised the current situation in the region is “not a ceasefire, because people are dying”.
She added that hundreds of thousands of people are still “living in makeshift tents, facing the cold, the floods, the very limited food and no medicine, no electricity, nothing”.
Organisers said the event was one of a number of protests scheduled to take place across Ireland.
