05/11/2023
Palestine & Dublin Ecofeminist Collective
I am sharing the statement from the Dublin Ecofeminist Collective and I would urge everybody to go to the vigil in support of the Palestinians and also that as it is important like the statement says to gather as a group to share our emotions.
The event has been organised by about 20 wonderful people in the Dublin Ecofeminist Collective with support and funding from Afri, Comhlámh, Dublin Bay North for All and Friends of the Earth Ireland. Many of the members of the Dublin Ecofeminist Collective are working for environmental campaigns in Ireland and wanted to show solidarity from the movement with the Palestinian people, and provide an outlet for grief.
It is one of a number of vigils on this weekend, including IPSC events today at 6pm and a vigil at the US Embassy tomorrow at 12pm. If you can attend them or this one we'd be grateful.
" While we among the Dublin Ecofeminist Collective have been encouraged by statements coming from artists, writers, activists, a few (not nearly enough) cultural institutions, and hundreds of thousands of members of the general public globally giving testimony with their feet and bodies, we are deeply disturbed by the failure of political leaders to call, unequivocally, for an immediate ceasefire interrupting the genocide of Palestinians, and, on the long-term, a political solution aimed at dismantling the occupation of Palestinian land and people.
We call on people to engage actively with what is unfolding. We recognise it is difficult to do so, and that the combination of conflicting accounts of truth and endless suffering on mobile screens is overwhelming. The despair, helplessness, and sense of being inescapably complicit are all the proof we need that we are irremediably connected to one another, not simply in a transcendental way, but here on the Earth we share, from which every being’s body is an extension. We have been convinced that our only choices are to despair in solitude, in front of our screens, or to shut down in self-preservation, suppressing our feelings. Rather than turning away, we can turn to each other, and, rather than suppressing our pain, we can stand together in a public expression of grief. We can stand firm together in the belief that it is never wrong to name the losses and to call for the end of violence being carried out under the banners of states."
