PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT intends to protest the “double standards” in American foreign policy as US President Joe Biden visits Ireland next month.
The planned dates for the trip, which were confirmed yesterday, indicate that the US president will arrive in Belfast on 11 April and travel to locations around Ireland before departing on the 15th.
His visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed on 10 April 1998, even as MI5 increases the terror threat level in Northern Ireland from substantial to “severe”.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll previously called for protests against the visit over the “Biden administration’s imperialist foreign policy and attacks on workers’ rights”.
The party has now confirmed plans to hold public meetings during the visit with a focus on the US’ foreign policy and the country’s promotion of its corporate and military interests.
A spokesperson said the party is “planning major meetings in cities around the country to expose US foreign policy, which is not so much about being leader of the free world and more about promoting the interests of American multinationals and the US military machine”.
Speaking to The Journal, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: “We will be asking in the strongest terms to Joe Biden, why does he continue to support the apartheid state of Israel?”
“And why, when he’s willing to impose sanctions on Putin for his illegal invasion of Ukraine, do they impose no sanctions on Israel for illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and the brutal imposition of an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people and the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people?” Boyd Barrett said.
“We will certainly be protesting about those shocking double standards that seem to characterise US foreign policy.”
He said the party will “absolutely” be calling for members of the government to raise the matter with Biden directly.
“Week in, week out in the Dáil, I urge the government to state publicly that if they think it’s legitimate to impose sanctions on Russia for what is undoubtedly a totally brutal, illegal invasion of Ukraine, why do they not similarly call for sanctions against Israel?
“Why do they not urge their European and US partners to impose similar sanctions and why do they fail to condemn the fact that the United States and the European Union actively support Israel in its perpetration of crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people?”
Former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is Chancellor of Queen’s University, are also expected to visit Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in a three-day conference beginning 17 April.
British intelligence agency MI5 increased its assessment this week of the terror threat level in Northern Ireland from substantial to severe, casting some doubt over the planned visits.
However, Biden’s visit remains set to go ahead, with him remarking to reporters yesterday: “They can’t keep me out.”
As The Journal reported at the weekend, gardaí have been informed that no further leave or rest days will be granted between 10 and 15 April as part of plans to facilitate Biden’s visit.
Officials from the US State Department have visited Ireland and met with hoteliers and gardaí in recent weeks ahead of the April trip.
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