Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted an event in University College Dublin (UCD) featuring Bernie Sanders, accusing him of being a ‘genocide denier’ on Thursday
The 83-year-old former US Presidential candidate is currently in Ireland to promote his book ‘It’s OK To Be Angry At Capitalism’.
In a video widely circulated on social media, Sanders is heard as saying that he will try to persuade the Biden Administration to call for a “humanitarian pause or ceasefire in order to provide the desperately needed aid.”
However, he said that he is just “a little bit queasy” about the use of the word “genocide”. “We have to be careful about it,” Sanders stated.
The International Court of Justice, per the request of South Africa, has ruled on January 26 that there are legal grounds for the accusation that Israeli is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,775 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,552 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
As Sanders began expressing his discomfort about the use of the term, a participant in the event interrupted the US senator while shouting: “It is a genocide.”
Another activist, a women, yelled: “What’s your definition of genocide?” to which Sanders did not respond.
“Bernie, you have funded Zionism yourself,” a third activist shouted, adding: “You have funded the Israeli settler state. Here you are, pretending you aren’t.”
“It is disgusting. Liar liar, genocide denier!” the activist continued.
According to Irish media, Sanders “replied to say that it’s not helpful to disrupt meetings, insisting that ‘slogans are not solutions’.”
However, the criticism did not only come from Irish students.
The Irish Star newspaper reported that Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett has also slammed Sanders for his stance in the first weeks of the genocidal Israeli war, when he repeatedly refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I respected Bernie Sanders until he refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza for the first 2 months of #IsraeliGenocide and still refuses to call what Israel is doing a genocide,” the Irish politician said.
“Like our government he legitimized the ‘self-defense’ propaganda which justified the Gaza slaughter,” Barrett continued.
In November, Sanders said during an interview with CNN that the ceasefire was not a viable option.
“I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, (a) permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel,” he said.
When Sanders made that statement, well-over 9,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children, had already been killed by Israel.
Sanders released the following statement on January 2, 2024, calling on Congress to reject the $10.1 billion in unconditional military aid being considered for Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people:
“The issue we face with Israel-Gaza is not complicated. While we recognize that Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack began this war, we must also recognize that Israel’s military response has been grossly disproportionate, immoral, and in violation of international law. And, most importantly for Americans, we must understand that Israel’s war against the Palestinian people has been significantly waged with U.S. bombs, artillery shells, and other forms of weaponry. And the results have been catastrophic,” said Bernie Sanders. “Since October 7th, over 22,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes, two-thirds of these victims have been women and children – and 57,000 have been wounded.”
“Since the start of the war 1.9 million Palestinian men, women, and children have been driven from their homes – 85% of the total population of Gaza. According to an analysis of satellite radar data nearly 70% of the housing units in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardment. Today, not only are the vast majority of people in Gaza homeless, they lack food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. A recent UN report indicates that half of the population of about 2.2 million are at risk of starvation and 90% say that they regularly go without food for a whole day. The chief economist at the World Food Program said the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is among the worst he has ever seen. This cannot be allowed to continue,” said Bernie Sanders. “Congress is working to pass a supplemental funding bill that includes $10 billion of unconditional military aid for the right-wing Netanyahu government to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people. Enough is enough. Congress must reject that funding. The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.”
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. .