Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 25.05.2024
Despite the fact that the recognition of Palestinian state has only symbolic value as it is not the solution but only the destruction of Israel by the Arab revolution and the formation of Palestine red and free from the river to the sea is the solution, in such a state the Palestinian refugee will have the right to return and the minority Jews will have equal civil rights. The Zionists in Ireland are terrified even though no one is touching them. They cannot understand why the world has turned against Israel that only kills human animals in their distorted worldview – the Palestinians – and they tell themselves that for some mysterious reason the world has become Anti-Semitic.
“Beyond the concern about the negative political tsunami that Israel is experiencing at the moment, the Jewish and Israeli community in Ireland is also very worried: “There are many countries that are considered critical of Israel in today’s reality, in each of them you can find a lot of criticism as well as a certain sympathy for Israel. Sometimes in the press, in politics, in the media, In the academy, throughout the nation, you will always find one central factor that supports Israel and produces a voice that supports us. In Ireland, Israel does not have support from any center of power, which leads to the fact that Ireland is the most one-sided country in Europe that acts against Israel,” explains Maurice Cohen (74). The head of the Jewish community in Ireland” [i]
The demand by the prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants against masters Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, together with the request for arrest warrants against senior Hamas figures and the “celebration” on social media, created a lively discourse in the Israeli community in Ireland, which numbers about 2,000-2,500 people, most of whom are connected to the high-tech worlds and concentrated in Dublin. The widespread institutional support for the Palestinians creates significant antagonism against Israel in the government, the education system, the trade unions, and the mass media.
The retired Irish pro Zionist Jewish politician Alan Shatter, explains how Ireland turned against Israel.
“Shatter cited the close relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the IRA, which dispatched its operatives to the Middle East for military training in Palestinian camps, as a key factor. “Their strong bond, which still exists, was reflected in these huge murals in nationalist areas expressing solidarity with the Palestinians,” he said. . . . Central to this position was the refusal of the IRA and Sinn Fein, its political wing, to recognize that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel.Since the end of civil war in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein and its anti-Israel prejudice have paradoxically gained greater purchase in the independent Republic of Ireland:The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), which has mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators who protest against Israel every week, is vocally pushing for a comprehensive boycott while targeting influential Irish citizens deemed insufficiently pro-Palestinian. Shatter cited the example of the Irish soccer star Robbie Keane, who now coaches Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli league, as the recipient of constant criticism and hostility” [ii]
“At first, in the 1920s and 1930s, Irish sympathies lay squarely with the Zionists and drew heavily on the presumed parallels between historic Irish and Jewish suffering, as well as the shared traumatic experience of large-scale migration in the 19th century. Drawing a parallel with their own history of occupation, the Irish also championed the Zionist struggle for self-determination against the British. A correspondent to The Bell, a leading Irish magazine, raged over current events in Mandate Palestine in March 1945: “Never let it be forgotten that the Irish people … have experienced all that the Jewish people in Palestine are suffering from the trained ‘thugs’ ‘gunning tarzans’ and British ‘terrorists’ that the Mandatory power have imposed upon the country. But, Irish nationalist perceptions toward Israel soon shifted. The country’s own anti-British rebellion led to a traumatic civil war that left six northern counties of the island under the British crown. Once the Zionist movement accepted the partition of Palestine, the Irish began to draw unflattering parallels between Israeli policies and their own divided existence. To many, the Jewish state now looked less like a besieged religious-national community struggling valiantly for its natural rights and more like a colony illegitimately established by British force of arms and intent on imposing itself on an indigenous population” [iii]
Down with the Zionist monster!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/world-news/europe/article/15794842
[ii] https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2024/03/why-ireland-hates-israel/
[iii] Rory Miller: Why the Irish Support Palestine https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/rory-miller-why-the-irish-support-palestine