A POLEGLASS grandmother is travelling to Cairo this week to take part in a Global March to Gaza.
The peaceful initiative is calling for immediate humanitarian access to the besieged region and an end to the 19-month onslaught on Gaza.
The Irish group, which includes more than 40 citizens from across the country, will converge in Cairo before marching across the Sinai Desert to the Rafah border crossing. Amongst them is Marie McNally (74), a well-known Palestine activist and a member of the BDS movement.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News before she set off, Marie said she has been a political activist her whole life.
"I've been an Irish republican my whole life and I've been very political all my life," she said.
"I was in the civil rights movement when I was very young, marched against internment, supporting hunger strikes, an Irish language act – so I have always had a political head."
Marie said she had been planning to travel to Gaza around the time of the October 7 attack but instead became involved in Palestine solidarity marches and demonstrations back home.
"In recent years, I have been watching what's happening in Palestine and it just seems to be getting worse and worse," she added. "I said to my husband that I needed to do something. I had planned to go out and teach English as a foreign language in the West Bank or Gaza but then October 7 happened.
"I ended up attending a Question Time programme in Belfast and I was very outspoken in favour of the Palestinians. The clip ended up going viral with over 12 million views.
"I then walked into a BDS movement demonstration in LIDL and someone recognised me from Question Time and asked me to make a speech and stuff. I got involved in the BDS movement after that.
"The situation in Gaza now is heartbreaking. I have attended marches, demonstrations and made speeches but it is just not enough anymore. There are so much lies out there being told by the Israelis. I am an old-style campaigner and I know the lies the British got away with here and Israel is doing the same now.
"People are now slowly starting to see what is happening in Gaza. It has only taken two years. How many more people need to be killed for the world to wake up. It is a genocide. When hospitals and schools are being bombed and children killed with drones, that is a genocide. It is the destruction of a nation."
This week, Marie will join thousands of activists across the globe for the Global March to Gaza and is aware of the potential risks.
"It is a very peaceful march. We are demanding that more food and aid is delivered into Gaza. If the only thing we achieve is to let the Palestinians know that the world has not forgotten about them, then so be it.
"Our demands are quite simple – food goes in and the Israeli army comes out, then re-build Gaza and create a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people.
"I am fully prepared for what will be a tough journey. At the same time, I am scared. It will be a tough walk physically and also when we get there, will we be attacked? The IDF have killed many civilians and continue to do so."
