Special event for Palestine to be held in Kilkenny this weekend
A unique display and music will take place in the city on Saturday
At 1pm at the Parade on Saturday 13th, the Craftivism for Palestine group, started in the West of Ireland, will be visiting the city to display a spectacular 100 foot long quilt in the Palestinian flag colours of red, green, black and white.
The quilt, made mainly by Irish women, but with some squares coming in from as far afield as Venezuela, is made out of 2,300 intricate crocheted squares, each representing 10 of the children killed by the IDF in Gaza.
The Craftivism group is bringing the quilt the length and breadth of the country and Kilkenny Community Palestine Solidarity Group, who have invited them, expressed their honour that it is coming to the city.
Both the groups are calling for maximum pressure on the Government to pass the Occupied Territories legislation, barring the import of goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
“We never planned to travel with it like this,” says Niamh Bonner, one of the quilt group founders, “but we brought the quilt to the Dáil, and since then have been invited all over the country to the Palestinian Embassy, Ballina to Derry, Galway and now to Kilkenny.”
Popular local band Burnchurch, recently at the Electric Picnic, will be playing at the event including their song, Lonely Whispers, about the 6-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab.
The child’s voice was heard begging rescue services over the phone, “please will you come and get me, I’m frightened,” as she was trapped with the bodies of her family for several hours before finally being killed by Israeli forces.
The focus of the event in Kilkenny is on the million children now trapped in Gaza at risk of death from being bombed or shot. The children, who make up half of Gaza’s 2.1 million population, are in urgent need of food, clean water and safety, and are calling the world to stop the genocide of their people.
The groups say that the display of the quilt will be a celebration of community and of determination to act to save lives as well as a commemoration for the lost children.
Kilkenny Community Palestine Solidarity Group and the quilt makers invite everyone to come on Saturday, September 13 and stand in solidarity with Gaza’s children and to come to the weekly vigil for Palestine at the Parade on Wednesdays from 5:30pm to 6pm.