8,000 strong petition handed to Dunnes Stores calling for a boycott of illegal Israeli settlement goods
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On Wednesday (17th December) members and supporters of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) handed in a petition signed by over 8,000 people calling on Irish supermarket chain Dunnes Stores to make a public commitment that their outlets will not stock goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The petition – signatures for which were collected on streets around Ireland during 2014 - was initiated to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the 1984 Dunnes Stores anti-Apartheid strike by IDATU (now called Mandate) trade union members in Dublin’s Henry Street, and calls on Dunnes to support justice for Palestinians. Present to support the campaign were popular singer Honor Heffernan, renowned artist Felim Egan and celebrated composer Raymond Deane. IPSC Vice-Chairperson, Fatin Al-Tamimi, a Palestinian woman from Hebron who handed in the petition, said: "We are calling on the management of Dunnes Stores to give a public commitment that their stores will refuse to stock products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and represent grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, thus stocking goods grown or manufactured in such settlements can only be considered collusion with illegality and Israel’s modern-day Apartheid regime in Palestine. 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the of the Dunnes Stores workers’ Anti-Apartheid strike. We ask Dunnes Stores to be on the right side of history this time."
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