Palestine solidarity protest held outside AXA office
"The AXA Group is committed to conducting business to the highest ethical standards," the company said in a statement to the Westmeath Examiner following a protest outside its offices in Mullingar.
The Palestine solidarity protest was held outside the AXA office on Austin Friar Street over the insurance company’s alleged funding of banks in Israel. Eight people took part in the protest on Friday April 5, organised by the Longford Westmeath branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).
One of those, Stephen McGovern, accused AXA of being complicit in the "genocide going on in the Gaza Strip" – something which the company refutes.
"Some people might wonder why we’re at AXA, but they invest money in Israeli banks and do a lot of financing in the country," he said.
"Those banks are financing what’s going on in Palestine, illegal settlements and occupying territory that doesn’t belong to them.
"We are here trying to send a message to the corporation that they need to pull out.
"The devastation in Gaza we are seeing with anywhere between 20, 000 and 30,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands of people starving – it’s an absolute disaster."
The AXA office was closed for training while the protest was happening, but the ISPC had left a letter.
Mr McGovern said their protest is part of a nationwide campaign from the ISPC to protest against companies they say have links to Israel. "It’s about delivering messages, IPSC has called for protesting all of the individual [AXA] branches to put pressure on them to pull money out of Israel," he said.
"We see McDonald’s have taken over their franchises in Israel because of the bad press they have got from giving free meals to IDF soldiers. They took a big hit financially because people were boycotting them, so these protests definitely work – we see it work.
"Puma are ending their relationship with the Israeli football team."
Tahira Tariq said support for Gaza is strong in Ireland, but more is needed.
"More people need to stand up and every protest we have done there has been more and more people getting involved," she said. "Our voices are getting louder and louder and that needs to happen.
"There is lots of public support for Palestine here and it’s beautiful to see the solidarity between the Irish and Palestinians.”
The Longford Westmeath ISPC branch have called on AXA to cut all business ties with Israel, similarly to how they handled dealings with Russia after the country began its invasion of Ukraine.
The accusations made against AXA by the ISPC have been refuted by the company who said, in a statement to the Westmeath Examiner, that they have "no proprietary investments in any of the banks cited in recent calls for boycott".
"The AXA Group is committed to conducting business to the highest ethical standards," they said. "AXA’s investments comply with all applicable laws and regulations and respect all internationally recognized human rights principles. This is also the case for AXA’s investment in the Middle East Region. The AXA Group Human Rights Policy can be found on our website."
Meanwhile, Mullingar 4 All and Longford Westmeath IPSC have announced they are following the success of their first fundraiser, a Gig for Gaza, which raised €4,200 for UNRWA, with another fundraiser in Clarke’s Bar Mullingar.
The Charity Father Ted Quiz is on April 27 at 7.30pm, Father Damo actor, Joe Rooney, will be present. There will be a raffle on the night also. The event is in support of Samia Alatrash, a Palestinian journalist who wants to evacuate her and her family to Egypt for safety.
A table of four is €20 and single entry is €5. Tickets are available on buymeacoffee.com.