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ACTIVISTS HAVE RECREATED the Nativity scene in Dublin to draw attention to the conflict in Gaza.
The Gaza Solidarity Nativity, organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was enacted beside the Molly Malone Statue in the Irish capital less than a week before Christmas.
The event heard reflections that if Jesus had been born today, he “would be born under siege, displaced, without access to medical treatment or nutrition”, while the Wise Men and the shepherds who visited him “would be taken hostage and they would be illegally detained in Israeli prisons”.
It also heard a call for the Irish government to “move beyond empty platitudes, and take concrete measures to stop the current genocide, end the siege of Gaza, and dismantle Israel’s apartheid regime”.
Musicians and artists performed including singer Molly May O’Leary and the Resistance Choir, poet Aine Hayden and Gazan photojournalist Eman Mohammed.
They were joined by scores of doctors with stethoscopes who held pictures of medical colleagues in Gaza who have been killed or detained.
O’Leary said regardless of an individual’s beliefs, having hope in a very dark time is what this time of the year symbolises for her.
“So I think it’s really important that we gather here during these dark times for Palestine and try and have a little bit of hope for the future,” she said.
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign chairperson Zoe Lawlor said that as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, the Irish government is “obliged under law to act to prevent genocide where there is a risk of it occurring”.
“The failure to sanction Israel, economically, politically and culturally is a breach of International Law,” she added.
“The Irish government must legislate to end Ireland’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes; it must enact the Occupied Territories Bill, goods and services and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill without further delay.
“It must act to ensure that no arms, tech or other military equipment en route to Israel’s genocidal war machine is allowed to pass through Irish airspace, and to immediately end the bilateral arms trade between Ireland and Israel.
“This Christmas as we reflect on the year that has passed, we look to 2026 with hope that the Irish government upholds their election promises and the will of the people of Ireland by taking concrete action to sanction Israel and bring about peace and justice in the holy land.”
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