Paul Murphy returns to Dublin following detention in Egypt
Paul Murphy has encouraged the Irish people to keep campaigning for an end to the "genocide" in Gaza after arriving back from Egypt.
The People Before Profit TD was greeted by his wife and young child in Dublin Airport after being released from detention in Cairo.
He had his passport and phone taken by officials after attempting to march to the Rafah border with thousands of other protesters from across the world.
Speaking in Dublin on Tuesday, Mr Murphy demanded that Tánaiste Simon Harris, who made contact with him on Sunday morning as efforts continued to assist Irish campaigners who were detained, to "match his strong words of criticism of Israel with action" including the full implementation of the Occupied Territories Bill and a ban on the facilitation of Israeli war bonds.
Mr Murphy said he would be willing to go back again but conceded that a march to the Rafah border will not be possible at this stage and instead campaigners will now focus their attention on an EU meeting in Brussels next week, which will also be attended by the Israeli foreign minister.
"We've had tremendous support from the Egyptian people. It's clear that the Egyptian people are very, very supportive of Palestine. Obviously, we're disappointed with the stance that the Egyptian state took.
"I'm fine, all the Irish people are fine, there are still some people, non-Irish people, who are detained out there, so we're hopeful that they're released as soon as possible. We have to be kind of mindful with the fact that they're potentially still in detention, and there's other Irish people who want to come home, in terms of the comments we make about Egypt," Mr Murphy said.
"But in any case, our focus isn't on ourselves and any inconveniences that we suffered pale into insignificance."
He added that it was not about him and that 4,000 people had travelled to Egypt in an attempt to reach the border and highlight
the death and starvation being inflicted on the people of Gaza.
"This is probably the biggest global coordinated march for Palestine that we have seen. And even though we didn't reach Rafah, we did succeed in highlighting what's happening. Just yesterday, 38 people were killed while queuing for aid, that's a pattern now."
Defending his decision to travel, Mr Murphy said: "I left on Thursday, I was in the Dáil on Thursday morning. I'm back today, back for the Dáil today. I think my constituents and most people in this country want politicians to do everything they can to stop this genocide."
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