The Cork Council of Trade Unions is holding a rally tomorrow calling for a ceasefire in Palestine and Lebanon.

SIPTU Transport, Energy, Aviation and Construction Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “It seems that Israel is now intent on replicating the barbaric levels of destruction that they have meted out to the people of Gaza over the last year in Lebanon. People are in despair at the complicity of the US and the EU in bank-rolling the Israeli war machine and the continuation of normal trade links with a country that shows no respect for international law.”

He added: “Workers must continue to pressure the Irish Government to take the lead in opposing the rogue state which Israel has become. The Occupied Territories Bill, which would place economic sanctions specifically on products and services produced on Palestinian land which has been illegally stolen, must be enacted. The Irish Government needs to step up to the plate, like when it recognised the State of Palestine, by looking for EU economic sanctions against Israel.”