‘Turning a blind eye to genocide': Mass. Rep. Neal's visit to Ireland protested
Around 50 pro-Palestinian protesters greeted U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-1st District, as he was hosted by the Killarney County Council, according to reports by The Journal, an Irish news organization.
Neal, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, is among the ranks of U.S. House lawmakers who have backed Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza.
Protesters took Neal to task for that support, along with his vote in favor of a controversial antisemitism awareness bill that critics say is a pretext for cracking down on support for the Palestinian cause, the Irish news outlet reported.
Neal, of Springfield, was one of six of the Bay State's nine House lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill.
The protesters, who gathered outside Muckross House, a historic Victorian mansion in an Irish national park, accused Neal of hypocrisy because he played a key role in facilitating the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the longest period of conflict in Irish history, the newspaper reported.
The 1998 peace pact also ensured there would not be a return to a 'hard border' between British-controlled Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Neal, 76, is the top Democrat on Congress's Friends of Ireland Caucus, according to his official biography.
One of those protesters, whom The Journal identified only as Maria, told the news outlet that 'obviously the peace process is really important to Northern Ireland, which is still under occupation.'
'We're put in a really horrible position by having him here, having him hosted, and having people stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel because of his position,' Maria, who helped organize the protest, continued.
Neal was among the scores of high-profile pols and business leaders who traveled to Ireland for the Global Economic Summit, which ran through Wednesday. The Springfield lawmaker also has ancestral ties to the area, according to the Irish news outlet.
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