Derry IPSC first group invited to make a presentation to Derry and Strabane Council in 2025

The Derry branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) was the first group invited to make a presentation to Derry and Strabane Council in 2025. 

Welcoming the delegation and speaker Catherine Hutton, DIPSC chairperson, Cllr Christopher Jackson, chair of the Governance and Strategic Planning (GSP), said: “The Genocide that is taking place in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, has dominated the discussions of Council over 2024. 

“I feel it would be very fitting for the first deputation of 2025 to be from Derry IPSC, who are one of the organisations leading in raising the plight of the Palestinians, here locally.”

Derry IPSC was formed in 2016 - the second active branch in the North of Ireland. 

The IPSC is a “grassroots movement working to support Palestinian human rights through advocacy and education and activism.”

Ms Hutton said it focuses on “raising awareness about the illegal occupation and promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

She added: “We want to raise awareness about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees who have been displaced and expelled from their homeland since 1948, and to bring about an end to the brutal apartheid regime in Palestine.”

“From 2018 to the present Derry IPSC has lobbied and been an integral part of the decision for Derry City and Strabane District Council adopting the corporate policy to support the Palestinian people in their struggle and we continue to support this work through the submission of several motions, including: Derry-Strabane BDS commitment, the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador, a call for ceasefire, the implementation of an ethical procurement policy, and also twinning with Bethlehem.” said Ms Hutton.

Speaking about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Ms Hutton highlighted that more than 48,000 people were dead, including 20,000 children.

“That’s just the official figures,” she added. “We know there are at least tens of thousands under the rubble who may never, ever be found. 

“Whole families have been wiped off the Civil Registry in Gaza. Whole bloodlines have been destroyed. This is nothing but deliberate.

“The global protests have been ignored by the governments but the people on the ground, the citizens of the world are with Palestine. We know wrong when we see wrong. 

“Palestinians in Gaza have live streamed and chronicled their genocide,” said a clearly moved Catherine Hutton.

She added: “If the health care system in Ukraine was being deliberately targeted and destroyed and health care workers killed by Russian troops, there British, US and EU boots on the ground. It would have been stopped without delay. 

“The complicity of these governments in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people is chilling. The implications for international law are very grave. The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) were for ‘tin pot dictators and regimes not for the civilised West.’”

Ms Hutton described Derry’s prominent status as an ‘apartheid free zone’ as “mere window dressing”.

“It has not been properly implemented,” she added. “There is little evidence of Council actions reflecting its commitments and we seek clarification on progress.

“There is a lack of progress by Council and the BDS working group within Council. Derry IPSC and Strabane BDS have not been involved in any of these meetings to date. Minutes have not been published on a regular basis or regular meetings held. 

“We believe the BDS working group has failed to achieve its potential. It lacks transparency. Additionally, Council engagements with pro-Israel politicians during trade missions sends a conflicting message about the Council’s commitments. 

We hope we can move forward with a proposal to develop a robust strategy and action plan with supporting communications, to ensure transparency and accountability. 

Derry IPSC is happy to be part of the BDS working group and would ask that this request be given due consideration,” said Ms Hutton.

Ms Hutton said IN 2025, Derry IPSC would like to strengthen BDS and make it work within the Council area, with IPSC representatives and Strabane representatives.

She added: “[We are also proposing] holding regular meetings and publishing minutes to develop and co-produced and short and long term strategy for implementing Council’s corporate policy.

“We have talked about launching a campaign for an apartheid free Derry and Strabane. Coca Cola is one of the top BDS priorities. It is very complicit in the Israeli occupation. It has a huge factory on stolen land in a settlement called Atarot. 

“We would urge and we would like to work with Council to remove products complicit in genocide from Council premises and replace them with ethical alternatives.”

Finishing with a “call to action”, Ms Hutton urged Council to “reaffirm its role in supporting Palestine, to fully implement BDS, to support the end of military support for Israel and to support ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, and to demand accountability”.

She said: “The BBC, in particular, has been very, very complicit in its reporting of this genocide. It has been almost silent about the deaths, the murders of over 200 Palestinian journalists.”

Cllr Sandra Duffy (Sinn Féin) said her party was also endeavouring to progress the Occupied Territories Bill in Dáil Éireann.

The Occupied Territories Bill would ban and criminalise "trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under international law", most notably Israeli settlements in Israeli-occupied territories.

Derry marks World Children's Day in solidarity with the children and young people of Gaza

It is estimated at least 3,100 children under five have been killed in Palestine

Second annual New Year's Eve Vigil for Gaza on Derry's Peace Bridge

'As we are standing here today, the people in Gaza are in sub-zero temperatures. Their tents are being destroyed by the storms. They have no food. They have no water' - Catherine Hutton, Derry-Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP) said there was an issue of “transparency” in Council.

He added: “I think people, because of the resolutions we’ve passed, expect us to be doing more and we have to be able to make that clear. 

“The Trade Mission frustrated a lot of Palestine campaigners and we have to have clarity there about how that is going to work going forward. There are going to be invitations sent to Irish political parties to go to the White House with Trump this year. I would hope none take them up.”

Cllr Harkin was referring to a meeting between Mayor of Derry and Strabane Lilian Seenoi-Barr's meeting with pro-Israeli politicians during a trade mission to the US.

Cllr Donnelly said doctors, nurses, and ambulance staff being deliberately targeted. It is not mindless. It is clinical and it is strategic and it is part of the bigger picture. If you don’t have a health service, then your genocide efforts are made that bit easier.

“Any child under the age of 15 months in Gaza knows nothing but daily bombardment. Can you imagine that? Coming into this world with constant bombs going off at all hours of the day and night. The psychological effect of that is a form of torture.”

Cllr Catherine McDaid (SDLP) proposed Council’s adoption of the recommendations in Ms Hutton’s presentation. This was seconded by Cllr Gary Donnelly (Independent). 

Cllr Duffy also proposed the inclusion of the Bloody Sunday Trust in Council’s BDS working group and its partnering with Derry IPSC and BDS Strabane for education and activism. Ths was seconded by Cllr Emma McGinley (Sinn Féin).

The proposal and the amendment were passed.