At Shannon today the Gardai were asked to search and investigate a US Air Force Boeing C40 registration 02-0042 that was at Shannon Airport, having come from Tel Aviv in Israel. The request was made of the Inspector in Charge at the barricades that blocked our access to the airport, and it was made on the basis that the US is assisting Israel with genocide against the Palestinian people. The inspector said he acknowledged the request, but did not say whether the aircraft would be searched or investigated.

It refuelled and took off again shortly after 3pm. We assume it was not searched or inspected.

We may not have weapons shipments coming through Shannon to Israel. But the US military is supporting the genocide so their use of Shannon should be ended immediately. 

The US is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after October 7. It’s hard to determine just how much Israel has received from them, but what we do know is that the US has sent tens of thousands of weapons. Some of them were accelerated supplies that were already committed under contracts, but according to a report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, there were so many arms shipments to Israel that a senior Pentagon official said the Department of Defense sometimes struggled to find sufficient cargo aircraft to deliver them.

The New York Times reported a few days ago that a Pentagon spokesman confirmed recent assistance has included precision-guided munitions, artillery ammunition, small-diameter bombs, bunker-buster rockets and “other categories of critical equipment".

He added that “the United States has surged billions of dollars in security assistance to Israel since Oct. 7”

In December, nearly 14,000 tank ammunition cartridges and equipment to Israel, worth $106.5 million, and the sale of 155mm artillery shells and related equipment worth $147.5 million. The White House bypassed congressional approval for both sales by invoking emergency authority.

In March, the Biden administration authorized the transfer of 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs.

The State Department has also authorized the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines.

These transfers represent only a small portion of the total assistance provided. There have been more than 100 other transactions that fell under a set dollar amount required for notification to Congress.

US President Biden may have paused a shipment of bombs to Israel to prevent them from being used in the assault on Rafah. But this is just posturing, and will make no substantive difference to the killing spree Israel is on in Gaza. US-made weapons are already being used widely in Gaza. Independent analysts have said, for example, that many of 1,000- or 2,000-pound bombs being used are retrofitted with Boeing-manufactured JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) kits to become precision weapons.

The US is also sending warships and military aircraft into the Eastern Mediterranean.

So while we may not have the weapons coming through Shannon, diplomatic flights, possibly to arrange the deals and deliveries, are likely to be coming through. They are the "real criminals" as one person at our vigil today said.

And troops that end up on those warships may be coming through. So the only way to ensure we do not assist in the killing of one more PAlestinian child is to stop them coming through Shannon.

Now.