SENIOR Sinn Fein leaders have announced they will boycott the White House’s traditional St Patrick’s Day celebrations in protest over Donald Trump’s plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
The party’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald, and Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill have said they will not attend events in Washington DC for events on March 17 in protest over US policy on Palestine.
O’Neill, also Sinn Fein’s vice president, said she was “standing “on the side of humanity”.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, the Northern Irish FM said: “The decision to not travel to the White House has not been taken lightly, but it is taken very conscious of the responsibility that each of us have as individuals to call out injustice when we see it.
“We are all heartbroken whenever we witness the suffering of the Palestinian people, and the recent comments by the US president around the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza is just simply something that I cannot ignore.”
O’Neill, who has travelled to the US several times, added: “At times like this, people look towards political leaders to stand against injustice. So in the future whenever our children and grandchildren ask us what did we do when the Palestinian people endured unimaginable suffering, I can say firmly that I stood on the side of humanity.”
St Patrick’s Day, while not an official holiday in the US, is a major event for the country’s large Irish diaspora.
For decades, it has been custom for the Irish taoiseach to gift the American president shamrocks on the day of the country’s patron saint.
McDonald said it is still important for the Taoiseach, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, to attend as he speaks for the people of Ireland.
She said Martin must use his expected bilateral with US president Donald Trump for St Patrick’s Day to “reflect the view of the Irish people” in support of Palestine.
Trump shocked the world when he said he wanted to expel Palestinians from Gaza and turn the region into the “riviera of the Middle East”.
His plans would mean the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which would be handed over by Israel to America for development.
