Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘Israel

“5 Takeaways from the Elections” by Paul Murphy and Diarmaid Flood, Rupture Magazine

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This is a recommended article. It is part of a very important discussion.

Link :
5 takeaways from the elections

With the final tallies counted and remaining seats filled, People Before Profits (PBP) Dublin South West and RISE members Diarmuid Flood and Paul Murphy review the deeply polarised Local and European Elections and outline five key takeaways.

For the second election in a row, dramatic political changes took place in the course of the local and European elections. Sinn Féin started the year polling around 30% and yet ended up with less than 12% nationally in the local Elections. Independents and Others started the year with around 15%, but won close to 25% on June 6th. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both hit 23%, coming from the high teens and around 20% respectively. In many ways, these appear to be the opposite political trends to what we saw in the General Election of 2020. Back then, Sinn Féin grew dramatically as hope for an end to 100 years of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael rule propelled them to be the biggest party in vote share for the first time ever. Volatility is clearly in the air.

However, what we saw in the five weeks of the election campaign did not come from nowhere. The election catalysed and accelerated existing processes. In the absence of major progressive social struggles, with the exception of the Palestine solidarity movement, the political terrain has undoubtedly shifted rightwards. Ireland has caught up with most of the rest of Europe and the Global North, with the emergence of a reactionary social movement in opposition to asylum seekers and the growth of a racist, climate denialist, anti-LGBTQ, and sexist far-right.

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Struggles for Self-Determination: Ukraine and Palestine Solidarity Discussion

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Ukraine and Palestine: building real solidarity is hard work

A guest post by JOHN LAWRENCE, from the People and Nature Blog hosted by Simon Pirani.

This article is relevant to the European Parliament Election campaign in Ireland and other parts of Europe.

“Genocide is genocide, a mass grave is a mass grave. We are with the people who are in there, and against the people who put them there”, journalist Ed Vulliamy told a discussion meeting in London on Monday.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s war on Gaza – both of which have settler colonial and genocidal dimensions – had thrown an unusually clear light on the hypocrisy of people who oppose one, but not the other, Vulliamy said.

Marching in London, March 2024. Photos from United Action UK on instagram

In the United Nations, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky abstains over Gaza, and South Africa abstains over Ukraine, Vulliamy said.

“Large sections of the left wonderfully support Gaza but, having denied and justified [the massacre in 1995 of Bosnians by Serb troops at] Srebrenica, at best indulge, or support, Vladimir Putin and his imperial endeavour,” he continued.

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USA President Genocide Joe Biden

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What public figure do you disagree with the most?

Genocide Joe Biden has the blood of thousands of innocent Gazans on his hands.

Massive Public Support for Pro-Palestine Encampment at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) – Book of Kells Closed Indefinitely

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Palestine Solidarity at the centre of Dublin City – May 5 2024



#DivestNow #AcademicBoycott

Irish Times Report, May 5 2024; Ronan McGreevy, Fiachra Gallagher

Trinity College Dublin closed ‘until further notice’ as protest against Israel ties continues

Several dozen students who have set up camp on the university’s grounds, blockading entrance to Book of Kells, say they will remain ‘indefinitely’ until demands are met

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Stormont 1st Minister O’Neill (Sinn Féin) and Deputy 1st Minister Little-Pengelly (DUP) met US firm supplying Israeli military in Washington DC

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Gerry Carroll, a People Before Profit member of the Stormont Assembly in Belfast, raises very disturbing questions.

This is a Suzanne Breen Belfast Telegraph Report, April 18 2024


People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll has slammed Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly for meeting a US engineering company which supplies the Israeli military with machinery to use in Gaza.

During their visit to Washington last month, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister met with Caterpillar, which provides its huge D9R armoured bulldozers to Israel.

The machines have a highly controversial history.

They were also used in the 2008-09 Gaza War, which left up to 1,400 people dead.

In 2003, American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a D9R as she tried to stop a bulldozer demolishing Palestinian homes in southern Gaza.

Rachel Corrie, crushed to death by Caterpillar armoured bulldozer in 2009

Mr Carroll lambasted Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly for also meeting Israeli-founded cybersecurity firm Forescout, which has a contract with the US Department of Defense.

He said: “It is deplorable for the First and Deputy First Minister to meet these firms during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Caterpillar is complicit in the Israeli occupation, enabling the illegal bulldozing of Palestinian homes. This is not reflective of Caterpillar workers, but of the horrific profiteering of Caterpillar bosses.

“Israeli-founded Forescout continues to do business with Israel’s chief military backer, and should never have been at that meeting.”

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Reports : Israel “interntionally kills” United Nations employees : Polish, Australian, Irish, and British

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Reports state that Israeli military forces have “intentionally killed” United Nations employees : Polish, Australian, Irish, and British.

Labour Party TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North) states :

Israel have just killed an Irish citizen working for the UN. 30,000 murdered Palestinians should have been reason enough. But immediate sanctions including expulsion of ambassador must be the reaction of govt. And if Dáil needs to be recalled to sanction it then so be it.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD

For sure, many other TD’s will make the same call.

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Sally Rooney: Killing in Gaza has been supported by Ireland’s ‘good friend’ in the White House

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Sally Rooney: Killing in Gaza has been supported by Ireland’s ‘good friend’ in the White House

Our Government is basking in the moral glow of condemning the bombers, while preserving a cosy relationship with those supplying the bombs

Source :

Sally Rooney – Palestine

“The cries of the innocent will haunt us forever if we stay silent.” These are the words of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, speaking at an event in Boston this week about Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza. And who could disagree? What is taking place in Palestine now is one of the most profound and shocking moral catastrophes of our time.

Already for months on end, Israeli military forces have been pounding the besieged, starving and largely homeless population of Gaza with relentless aerial bombardment. Cut off from the outside world, Palestinian survivors have been forced to document the crisis in real time, sharing stories, images and footage of mass graves, destroyed buildings and abandoned bodies. And with no end in sight, the United States continues to pump money and weapons into Israel to prolong the onslaught.

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“IF YOU CAN’T SAY NO TO THE WHITE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A GENOCIDE – THEN YOU’D NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND UP – NOT EVEN FOR IRELAND.”  Poster, Belfast Pro-Palestine Demonstration

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An interesting political coalition is assembling in Ireland, the USA, and elsewhere calling on public representatives to boycott USA President Joe Biden’s annual White House Patrick’s Day celebration in 2024. As Bernadette McAliskey says :

Colum Eastwood’s decision to absent himself and SDLP from ‘rocking the sham’ in the White House is very welcome.
The Irish government parties and Sinn Féin might want to reconsider their positions.

Bernadette McAliskey, Impartial Reporter, February 9 2024

A Pro-Palestine activist, Art Ó Laoghaire, has sent the following message to several Irish public representatives :

Do you believe that Israel is justified in its military campaign in Gaza, and that the US should continue to supply weapons to them?
The last four months has seen more than 27,000 people killed in Gaza, including 10,000 children, and more than 60,000 wounded.
South Africa believes Israel is guilty of genocide.
Amnesty says today that Israel is committing war crimes.
And António Guterres said that the people of there don’t have enough to eat, while Israel continues to block food supplies.

Yet today Joe Biden has asked Congress for billions of dollars to continue to supply arms.

How can you in all honesty go to Washington for St Patrick’s Day to enjoy Biden’s hospitality, while he continues to facilitate this carnage?
Some may claim that face-to-face conversation gives them an opportunity to express Ireland’s views on the situation.
But this is absurd. Biden knows our views. It would say much more to him if his celebrations were boycotted.
It would also be a message to the Irish American voters he is trying to canvas.

If you have any moral principles you will stand by the Palestinians and refuse to join in Biden’s re-election party.

Art Ó Laoghaire

Bernadette McAliskey’s Article :

Sharing thoughts on Northern Ireland politics and American policy

Bernadette McAliskey, Impartial Reporter, February 9 2024

Thank You, Mr. Eastwood.

Colum Eastwood’s decision to absent himself and SDLP from ‘rocking the sham’ in the White House is very welcome.

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“Are there two international courts?!!” – Post published by the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog

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A very welcome post by Des Derwin, first published on the Cedar Lounge Revolution blog. Source : https://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/are-there-two-international-courts/

Last week the left – alongside all decent people – was blaring a fanfare for the referral of Israel by South Africa to the International Court of Justice. And rightly so, of course. It is to be welcomed and it should be supported by the Irish government. All platforms and publications of the left are buzzing with it. South Africa is being commended effusively for their initiative and congratulated wholeheartedly for their solidarity with the people of Gaza. The left has, obliviously, great respect and faith in the International Court of Justice. The left sees it as very significant that a state should be brought to the International Court of Justice to answer for its crimes. 

The BBC reported: ‘evidence submitted by South Africa claims “acts and omissions” by Israel “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”’. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67922346

The Irish government and many other governments are being accused, not least by the Irish radical left, of double standards, inconsistency and hypocrisy in their attitudes and responses to Russian crimes in Ukraine and Israeli crimes in Palestine. 

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