Congress was perturbed to hear about the brutal arrest last night of the BNC General Coordinator of the BDS movement - Mahmoud Nawajaa.
This clearly is an attack on the whole movement, as well as the use of coercion and force to attempt to silence a leading Palestinian human rights defender.
We call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Nawajaa, and will be writing urgently to the Department of Foreign Affairs urging a response from the Irish Government. We will be asking them to defend in the strongest manner possible Palestinian human rights defenders, like Mahmoud, but also to impose lawful, targeted sanctions to end Israel's regime of oppression of the Palestinian people.
(The global, peaceful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was launched in 2005 by the overwhelming majority of Palestinian unions, mass movements, women's organizations, and campaigns. It calls for ending Israel's occupation and apartheid regime and for realizing the UN-stipulated rights of Palestinian refugees, forcibly displaced since 1948, to return to their homes. The BNC, the largest coalition in Palestinian society, leads the BDS movement worldwide. Congress is a member of the BDS movement).
