People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
"I welcome the judge's decision to dismiss the PPS case against me today for protesting against Israel's Gaza genocide.
I sincerely thank our legal team of Sinead, Des and Michael, and thank everyone who has supported the campaign.
The decision to allow the cases against Goretti, Nina and others to proceed is very disappointing, but will be rigorously challenged.
We make no apologies for taking a stand against war crimes.
We were absolutely right to challenge these charges in order to defend the right to protest genocide and oppose the criminalisation of Palestine solidarity.
Clearly, the legislation is not fit for purpose.
Across the world, millions of people have taken a stand against Israel's genocidal war on the Palestinian people - and government's complicit with it.
In response, Keir Starmer and the British establishment want to criminalise the Palestine solidarity movement to hide their own criminal complicity.
Instead of ending arms sales to Israel and demanding Netanyahu be held to account in international courts, Starmer proposes Palestine solidarity marches are banned. Yet, he has no issue with fascist Tommy Robinson organising hate rallies.
DUP MLAs have matched Starmer’s hypocrisy by travelling to Tel Aviv to endorse the murderous Israeli regime.
Those responsible for the mass slaughter of Palestinian children and those funding it, should be facing charges, not the movement trying to stop it.
We continue to demand the implementation of a full political, economic, military and cultural boycott of the Israeli state.
The football match between Ireland and Israel should not happen. There can be no normalisation of a state committed to ethnic cleansing.
We demand an end to the cynical attempt to criminalise resistance to genocide and Israeli war crimes.
Israel's murderous assault on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran and beyond won't end until it is stopped, as the South African apartheid regime was."