Message to President Trump: Hands Off Gaza!

Text of speech by Patrick Corrigan to the 'Hands Off Gaza' rally outside the US Consulate General in Belfast, 1 March 2025

Thank you to the organisers, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for the invitation to speak here today.

We are here to send a message to President Trump and the US administration. Our message is Hands Off Gaza!

President Trump’s call for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip is simply shameful. His language is inflammatory, his approach is dangerous, and his proposals amount to a flagrant violation of international law. 

To witness the US President’s eagerness to help Israel accelerate their genocide in Gaza is an affront to the conscience of humanity.

Let us be 100% clear - any plan to forcibly deport Palestinians outside the occupied territory against their will is a war crime.

When committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population, it would constitute a crime against humanity.

President Trump dehumanises Palestinians, who for the last 16 months have been victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for decades have been living under illegal occupation and apartheid.

Most of Gaza’s Palestinians are descendants and survivors of the 1948 Nakba. They have already been repeatedly uprooted and dispossessed by Israel and denied their right of return.

Yet they have continued to struggle to remain on their lands and defend their human rights.

They must not and will not be forced out again.

Over the last year-and-a-half, they have already experienced a catalogue of human rights violations.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including through unlawful killings, injuries and the deliberate infliction of conditions of life that are calculated to bring about their physical destruction, has been accompanied by

• an alarming rise in unlawful killings in the occupied West Bank,
• state-backed settler violence,
• mass land confiscation,
• arbitrary arrests,
• enforced disappearances, and
• torture and other ill-treatment of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

President Trump repeatedly referenced the destruction, killing and unlivable conditions in Gaza calling it a ‘demolition site’ while seated next to the man responsible, a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Yet Trump completely failed to mention the Israeli government’s responsibility for causing this devastation.

Nor did he acknowledge the US government’s role in providing the weapons that have repeatedly been used to carry out deadly, unlawful attacks in Gaza.

Desperately needed humanitarian aid and reconstruction must not now be used as a grotesque bargaining chip or as a means to coerce Palestinians in Gaza into leaving.

No state is entitled to treat a protected population living under occupation as pawns in a geopolitical chess game.

In the face of President Trump’s dangerous threats, it is more important than ever for the rest of the international community, including our own elected representatives, to categorically and clearly reject these proposals.

Instead, they must expedite diplomatic efforts, in line with international law,

• to end Israel’s unlawful occupation,
• dismantle apartheid,
• and uphold human rights for both Palestinians and Israelis.

History has abundantly demonstrated that sidelining international law for political expediency is a recipe for the perpetuation of violations, a recipe for disaster.

There must be only one possible answer to this proposal: a resounding, firm and united No.

That is our message from Belfast today. From across Ireland and the UK. From across Europe, from Africa to Asia and Latin America, there is only one possible, historical and human response to Trump and Netanyahu: a resounding, united, collective No.

No to its inhumanity.

No to its territorial grab.

No to its illegality.

No to more conflict.

No more suffering and no more pain.

Yes to peace and yes to justice.