An online petition calling on Irish politicians to boycott this year’s White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations has surpassed 5,000 signatures little over a week after its launch.
Set-up by Catherine Hutton, the chair of the Derry Branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the petition calls for “No céad mile fáilte or drowning the shamrock with Joe Biden until he stops arming and funding genocide in Gaza”.
It urges political representatives from across Ireland to stay away from the traditional Washington DC celebrations on March 17.
The US administration is Israel’s most powerful ally, supplying it with some £3bn worth of weaponry every year.
Last week, People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll called on Irish politicians to show solidarity with the Palestinian people by refusing to go to the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the White House, which are ordinarily attended by the leaders of the main political parties on both sides of the border.
In 2016, ahead of the election of Donald Trump, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he would boycott the White House celebrations, and he also called on other Irish and Irish-American politicians to snub the Republican candidate if he was elected to the Oval Office.
The Washington St Patrick’s Day celebrations were much more low key under the Trump administration, however, President Biden is decidedly more keen to highlight his Irish ancestry.
Last month, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she would not be in favour of boycotting the White House this year.
Mrs Hutton told The Irish News that the petition wasn’t focused on any particular party or politician.
“We are non-party political and do not wish to target specific parties but we are calling on all politicians across the island to help put pressure on the US administration in order to bring about an end to the genocide in Gaza,” she said.
“Joe Biden likes to celebrate his Irish heritage but under the current circumstances I believe it would sully the reputation of the Irish to be associated with his administration.”
Meanwhile, the SDLP’s two MPs have voted against Tory Westminster legislation that aims to restrict the ability of councils to take positions of conscience on the behaviour of foreign governments and to adapt their own procurement policies to take part in solidarity campaigns such as the BDS movement.
“The extreme Tory anti-boycott legislation is designed to silence legitimate dissent and protest against the actions of foreign governments that undermine human rights – there is no other way to describe it,” party leader Colum Eastwood said.
You can sign the petition at https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/boycott-st-patrick-s-day-celebrations-at-the-whitehouse-2024