Sinn Féin’s leadership will not attend an event at the White House in “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza”.
The party’s president Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin vice president, made the announcement on Friday.
Senior Sinn Féin figures normally travel to the US every year around the same time that the Irish premier traditionally gets invited to meet the US President for St Patrick’s Day events.
Speaking on Friday, Ms McDonald said: “I followed with growing concern what’s happening on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank, and like many other Irish people, have listened in horror to calls from the President of the United States for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and the permanent seizure of Palestinian lands.”
She added: “There is also an onus on us to speak honestly and to act when we believe a US administration is wrong, catastrophically so in the case of Palestine.
“I’ve thought deeply about this issue in recent days, and listen to many voices inside and outside of Sinn Féin.
“I’ve made the decision not to attend the event in the White House this year as a principled stance against the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza, something which I believe demands serious dissent and objection.”
Ms McDonald said it is still important for the Taoiseach, Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin, to attend as he speaks for the people of Ireland.
She said Mr 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.
