COLONIAL PROXY MILITIAS, FROM IRELAND TO PALESTINE

On November 3, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Ireland, irish history, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Song, Song in Struggle, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

Reading time main text: 5 mins.)

Currently the Palestinian Resistance is engaged in an important struggle to eliminate four Israeli-proxy militias. This type of militias of colonial and imperial powers have a long history, not least in Ireland from the 1800s to the present.

SETTLER AND NATIVE MILITIAS IN IRELAND

The British colonial occupation of Ireland had an army to quell native resistance but many settlers also organised themselves into armed bands (as in Palestine), such as the Hearts of Steel or Hearts of Oak in the late 18^th Century in order to resist the big landlords.

The United Irishmen were successful in uniting a number of these, both native and settler bands such as the Whiteboys and Hearts of Oak, particularly in Antrim but the Peep O’Day Boys went mostly with the sectarian and royalist Orange Order.

The settlers also organised yeomanry militias which they labelled ‘Volunteers’, initially to defend against a feared invasion from Napoleonic France. Some of those contained Republican sympathisers and some quite the opposite.¹

In response to the successful uniting efforts of the mostly Protestant-led United Irishmen, the Orange Order was founded by British loyalists and soon received official support in organising anti-Catholic pogroms and in exposing United supporters, especially among the Protestant communities.

LOW INTENSITY OPERATIONS AND “PSEUDO-GANGS”

During the three-decades war towards the end of the 20^th Century mostly in the 6 Counties, the British Occupation also organised proxies such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association. These were recruited among the Protestant/unionist community.

But not only among civilians.

As has been a pattern among colonial possessions, the occupying power organised a gendarmerie, i.e an armed police force under central command of the occupying power. In Ireland that was the Royal Irish Constabulary which came to prominence in the suppression of the 1867 Fenian rising.

After the partition of Ireland by the British in May 1921, the RIC within the remaining direct colony of the Six Counties was renamed the Royal Ulster Constabulary². British Intelligence used this force to channel intelligence, arms and recruits into the Loyalist gangs.

In addition, many members of the disbanded RUC’s semi-militia, the part-time B-Specials, were reorganised into the RUC Reserve of the colonial police or recruited into the British Army as the newly-formed Royal Ulster Regiment, from which the Loyalist militias could be supplied as before.

Brigadier Frank Kitson was a leading colonial counter-insurgency strategist who had served in Kenya and Malaya before he was sent to the Six County colony to coordinate the Loyalist militias and the official armed forces and gendarmerie, no doubt in coordination with MI5.

Kitson published Gangs and Pseudo-Gangs (1960) and Low Intensity Operations (1971³) based on the experience of colonial resistance repression in Malaya and Kenya, going on to introduce these ideas organisationally in the occupation of the Six Counties.

Pseudo gangs give the occupying power deniability and, being generally from the occupied country,⁴ have local knowledge. They can carry on terrorism and assassinations at ‘a remove’ from the occupying power.⁵ In the case of criminal gangs, they have an existing organisation.

Such gangs may have family or other social relationships with some in the targeted community, introducing allegiances and communal fragmentation as has been occurring to some extent in Gaza. However, in Ireland, the gangs were all originating from the unionist community.

Frank Kitson (now Brigadier) in 1971 (Photo source: Internet)

Jeffrey Sluka summarises⁶ “… beginning in 1972, there has been a vicious, continuous campaign of sectarian assassination against Catholics in Northern Ireland waged by Loyalist paramilitary groups (the Ulster Defence Association [UDA] and Ulster Volunteer Force [UVF]) …

“… and their associated death squads (the Ulster Freedom Fighters [UFF], Red Hand Commandos, Protestant Action Force, etc.), who have killed nearly 700 innocent Catholic civilians – the largest category of casualties in the war.

“Thousands of other Catholics have survived Loyalist attempts to murder them.

“The existence of this campaign has never been publicly acknowledged by the British authorities, who have ignored it, downplayed it, and actively misrepresented it …

“… to influence the media and public in this regard, both at home and abroad, as an integral part of their counterinsurgency strategy.

“The official position of the British authorities is that there is no state terror in Northern Ireland, and certainly no death squads. When pressed, they admit that there is Loyalist terror against Catholics, but insist that they have nothing to do with it.

“When pressed with evidence such as the fact that hundreds of members of the Security Forces have been convicted of involvement with Loyalist paramilitaries, they claim that this collusion is informal – individual acts by rogue soldiers and policemen

“- and not a reflection of government policy or military strategy. All of these are political lies.”⁷

SEPOYS

The use of military forces recruited among the occupied people dates back further even than the Roman Empire and the British Empire used them extensively in India, where they called them ‘Sepoys’,⁸ which is what the Basque pro-independence people call the Basque Autonomous Police.⁹

In India, one of the most serious uprisings against British rule was sparked by a mutiny of its Sepoys.¹⁰

In Palestine, the ‘Zipaios’ equivalent are the police of the Fatah-controlled Palestine Authority. They are bad enough, brutally suppressing dissent, spying on and even attacking Palestine organisations in the West Bank, arresting and even killing critics.

The Royal Irish Constabulary in Ireland were a gendarmerie mostly composed of sepoys and of course there were many Irish regiments in the British Army and Irishmen also served in other British Army units, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

WORSE THAN SEPOYS

The militias in Gaza are however even worse. Based on criminal gangs and social groups, they have consistently looted aid trucks coming into Gaza before Israel closed all the gates, then selling the goods at high prices to the hungry population as Gaza starved and medicine became scarce.

According to reports there are currently four Zionist-linked militias in Gaza: Abu Shabab around Rafah in southern Gaza; Husam al-Astal in Khan Younis, Ashraf al-Mansi in Beit Lahia in the North, and Rami Heles in eastern Gaza.

*Sourced from The Cradle based on Sky News investigation.*

Their looting, supported by the Zionist state, was even used to try to blame on the Resistance, with Israeli spokespersons claiming that Hamas was stealing the aid. Conversely, as the Resistance strove to counter the proxy militias, the fighters were targeted by the Israeli Occupation Force.

Consequently it was almost impossible for the Resistance to suppress the proxy militias – until the current ‘ceasefire’. Now, able to operate to some extent more openly, the Resistance is settling accounts with the proxy militias. And it is very important that they do so.

Not only for what they have done, the plundering of emergency aid, attacks on displaced persons, torture and murder of famed journalist Salah al-Jafarawi.¹¹ But because they are a serious infection, injected into Gazan society by the Zionazi occupation in order to cause serious harm to the society.

According to reports, undercover operatives of the Resistance have infiltrated the gangs and managed to appropriate a large number of weapons and vehicles of the gangs donated by the IOF or by the United Arab Emirates.¹²

Hamas advertised a truce for gang members to hand over their weapons and surrender themselves to the authorities, which some have done but many have not. The Resistance has operational clashes with the militias and has captured many. Some were publicly executed by gunshot.

Whether full-scale war returns to Gaza after this ‘ceasefire’ (full of IOF bombings, shelling and shooting) or not, their presence in Palestinian society cannot be tolerated, not by the civil government, nor by the broad community, nor by the armed resistance.

End.

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APPENDIX:

A Sky News investigation has revealed that Israel is backing four Palestinian militias inside Gaza to weaken Hamas as part of what militia leaders call “Project New Gaza.” Hossam al-Astal, head of one of the groups, said the militias are coordinating their efforts to remove Hamas from power.

He claimed that Yasser Abu Shabab and Ashraf al-Mansi, leaders of other groups, have also joined the project. All four militias are reportedly positioned along the yellow line in areas under Israeli control.

Astal told Sky News his headquarters is only 700 meters from an Israeli military outpost and that an Israeli coordinator had agreed to establish a “Green Zone” free of shelling or gunfire. Footage reviewed by the outlet showed militia vehicles with Hebrew markings scratched off.

Astal admitted the group receives logistical support and ammunition from outside Gaza and has bought Hamas weapons on the black market. A senior fighter in the Abu Shabab militia also said Israel had enabled the smuggling of guns, cash, and vehicles.

The militias reportedly coordinate their movements with Israeli forces at Kerem Shalom to bring in supplies, while western powers are said to provide indirect material support. Two of the militia leaders are former Palestinian Authority security officers.

While the Mansi militia denied direct contact with the Israeli military, it acknowledged coordination with Israel’s District Coordination Office. Abu Shabab previously told Army Radio he was open to working with Israel, calling Trump’s ceasefire plan “a way to end the war.”

“Soon we will achieve full control of the Gaza Strip,” he told Sky News.

(Summarised by The Cradle online news updates on Telegram 26 October 2025).

FOOTNOTES

1The yeomanry militias deployed in Wexford, such as the North Cork, proved to be the most vicious and indisciplined of the Occupation’s forces and are noted in a number of songs in English and Irish:
“… He led us on against the coming soldiers,And the cowardly yeomen we put to flight…” (Boolavogue, Patrick McCall, 1898);

“… Is go gcuirfeam yeomen ag crith in a mbrógaibh
Ag díol a gcomhair ar Shliabh na mBan.” (Sliabh na mBan, believed by Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin, 1798).

2Since then renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (sic).

3The same year that mass internment without trial was introduced by the British Occupation and that the Ballymurphy Massacre of protesting nationalist civilians was carried out by the Parachute Regiment.

4Sometimes even from the oppressed native community.

5They are more easily dispensed with too, should they be no longer needed or their relationship become too public.

6In his own chapter For God and Ulster: The culture of terror and Loyalist Death Squads in Northern Ireland in Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror, Ed. Jeffrey Sluka (200), USA.

7Excerpt from ibid, sourced in https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/docs/sluka00.htm

8The term in Persian originally denoted ‘soldier’ but borrowed into Urdu and Hindi and under British rule, denoted native soldiers and their units in the British armed forces.

9The Ertzaintza. The Navarran police (‘Forales’) could also be called ‘Sepoys’ but are more usually called by other uncomplimentary names.

10 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40528129

11 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/12/palestinian-journalist-saleh-aljafarawi-shot-dead-in-gaza-city-clashes

12 Weapons, warlords, and wasteland: Israel’s new strategy for Gaza

SOURCES

Weapons, warlords, and wasteland: Israel’s new strategy for Gaza

https://news.sky.com/story/revealed-the-plan-for-a-new-gaza-and-the-four-militias-israel-is-backing-to-defeat-hamas-13456416

STRONG SOLIDARITY SUPPORT FOR ARRESTED PORT BLOCKADE ACTIVISTS

On October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Palestine, Political Analysis, Zionism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 2 mins.)

Many people endured heavy rain on Friday morning to support two Palestine solidarity activists in court as a result of the now-infamous Garda pepper-spray and baton attack on a peaceful march to Dublin docks on 18^th October.

*Small section of the crowd of supporters *outside the Court on 31 October 2025* for the two pepper-sprayed and charged* *Palestine solidarity activists* (Photo: *D. Breatnach*)

The Port march was a breakaway from a periodic Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign national march to Leinster House, the home of the State’s parliament; some IPSC stewards denouncing it as it diverged at O’Connell Bridge and called on others to march on Dublin Port instead.

From video and eyewitness reports it is clear that the Public Order Unit of the Garda determined not only to stop them but to ‘teach the protesters a lesson’. No sooner had the linked-arms marchers reached the police line than some of them sprayed pepper-spray on the Palestine solidarity activists.

So heavy was the spraying that it affected a number of the Gardaí themselves. Many also drew their batons and attacked the demonstrators reeling from the effects of the spraying. The POU unit had their ID numbers concealed and Gardaí pursued activists moving away, spraying them again.

The Gardaí later claimed they had given a warning before spraying as they are required so to do by their own regulations but both Irish Council for Civil Liberties observers and video evidence show this to be untrue.

Solidarity activists were arrested at the scene of the Garda attack and one other outside a special sitting of the court on Saturday evening. The charges were of the usual kind with police repression of demonstrations: offences against Public Order, resisting arrest and obstruction of traffic.

The Irish State is the 2nd-largest single importer of Israeli products, second only to the USA and clearly has no intention of moving from that situation.

Nor of demilitarising Shannon Airport nor of banning Irish airspace to overflights ferrying military supplies to Israel. Two years of giant solidarity marches and smaller ones up and down the country have not moved the Irish ruling class to any degree beyond making statements.

As people move to take actions that have the potential to force the Government to end their collusion it seems inevitable that the State will increase its repression, which will work towards intimidation but also to increased resistance.

*Small section of the crowd of supporters for the two pepper-sprayed and charged outside the Court on 31 October 2025.* (Photo: *D. Breatnach*)

Those gathering at the court today were for the most part independent activists and activists of very small political organisations but many also of broad Palestine solidarity groups.

The two facing charges today had their cases postponed to January 2026, with talk of the Gardaí possibly returning shortly to court to press more serious charges, with the potential of heavier punishment — but conversely also of greater political statements made before a jury.

Solidarity with people fighting in struggles in other parts of the world often has a price of repression where the solidarity is originating, which makes solidarity to the targeted activists essential too. In that context, the numbers attending the court on Friday morning were very encouraging.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

FURTHER INFORMATION:

SAVAGE GARDA REPRESSION OF PALESTINE SOLIDARITY ACTION

Recognition of Palestine in Two-States – A Solution Only for Imperialism

On October 29, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon, Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, irish history, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, PalestineLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 9 mins.)

A wave of “recognitions of the State of Israel” have occurred around much of the world. Though at first glance these appear politically progressive, in fact they are all tied to supporting the colonial alleged “Two States Solution.”

This is quite apart from the fact that not one practical step is being taken by any of those states in order to prevent the ongoing genocide and massive displacement of Palestinians which many of the states are actually aiding.

*The fourth image is what is available for the Palestinians in the imperialist two-state plan.* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

Soon all but 30 member states of the UN will have recognised the Palestinian state (yet to exist) and they include western imperialist states such as Australia, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, supported by political parties both in government and opposition,¹ all proposing a ‘two-state solution’ (sic).

This proposal involves accepting the ‘right’ of a European colonial settler regime to invade and occupy a land,² subjugate most of the indigenous people, racially discriminate against them, set up an ethno-state, then carry out ethnic cleansing, genocide and further expansion.

This while simultaneously proposing 20% of the land with least water as a reservation for the indigenous people, under the guns and surveillance of the genocidal Occupier, with its borders, water and electricity supply all under the Occupiers’ control.

Many liberals and social-democrats will support the imperialist ‘solution’ being foisted upon the Palestinian people of the occupation of Gaza by a client regime and the creation of a formal Bantustan³ colony – the “Palestinian State” (sic).

This ‘solution’ was insisted upon at the three-day UN Conference in July, mandated by the UN General Assembly through resolutions ES-10/24 and 79/81 and sponsored by France and Saudi Arabiab, backed by the General Assembly President, Philémon Yang.

Also by Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stating that the “… only just and sustainable path forward is the establishment of two independent, democratic States – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital⁴…” ⁵

Firstly, we’d have to say that there is nothing “just” about that path and secondly ask why is that the ‘”only sustainable solution?” Why cannot a democratic state of the entirety of Palestine, as pre-1948, be sustainable? Is it because the Zionists and their imperialist won’t let it be?

Then we’d be entitled to ask whether Guterres and Yang speak for the world or instead for the imperialist states and their clients and allies. In fact, since there can be no peace without justice, a democratic state of Palestine on pre-1948 territory is the only just and sustainable solution.

This scrambling to recognise the ‘Palestinian State’ within a “two-state” framework was also reflected in the recent United Nations vote for a ceasefire, which was tied to the acceptance of the two-state solution, emphasising that it has nothing to do with justice but is all about management.

The imperialist states and their allies, with the particular exception of the US and Israel, are very worried that the legacy of the current genocide will threaten their interests in Western Asia in the near future, including the regimes they depend upon to control the Arab people.

To some extent the western states are also concerned at the exposure of their regimes to their own populations in terms of collusion with genocide, financial implications , suppression of information and, in many cases, repression of democratic rights to protest.

The western states want to save West Asia for imperialism and they think that the USA and current behaviour of Israel are endangering it.

The two-state plan is not at this point supported by the Zionist state and the chief imperialist, the USA, though the plan seeks to impose what they also want: stability within the imperialist system.

Recently another international conference was held to discuss the way to resolve the situation of Western Asia and crisis in Palestine, this conference organised by Qatar following Israel’s bombing of their capital Doha in an assassination attempt against the Hezbollah negotiating team.⁶

The Iranian representative pointed out at the conclusion that although they supported some of the resolution adopted they could not agree to recognition of a Palestinian state within or adjacent to Israel, since that meant de facto recognition of the right of the genocidal Zionist state to exist.⁷

Recognition of the Palestinian State as is being done now is also recognition and acceptance of the totally unrepresentative and undemocratic Palestinian Authority and in fact, Palestinian Embassies (such as the one in Dublin) and Consulates are run through the Authority.

*Leaflet issued by an Irish solidarity organisation for a picket of the Palestinian Authority Embassy last year – subsequently there was a broad protest held outside.* (Image sourced: *from my archives*)

Although Palestine has been officially occupied by a Zionist colonial settler regime since 1948, it has had an imperialist and Zionist client Palestinian regime since the conclusion of the Oslo process (overseen for US imperialism by Bill Clinton): the Palestine Authority.

What would one expect from such a client regime? Collusion, spying, pacification? Certainly, the PA came to represent all those things. But in addition: bullying and brutal suppression, along with widespread corruption. It was managed by the Fatah leadership through the PLO.⁸

Whatever we may think of the Fatah leadership, they were by far the majority choice of the Palestinian people in the legislative elections of 1996. But by the time of the next elections in 2006, most of Palestine society had become sick of Fatah and elected Hamas instead.

A 2007 decree by President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas disqualified from election any party that did not recognise the leading role of the Fatah-dominated PLO, thereby disqualifying Hamas which denounced the decree as undemocratic and illegal.

There is a long history of imperialism choosing tame representation for occupied peoples, including British colonialism doing the same thing in Palestine.⁹

Fatah, unprepared to accept the loss of their power and corruption opportunities, refused to leave their governing positions until they were helped to leave by Hamas in a short, sharp struggle in 2007.¹⁰ Whereupon the Zionists blockaded Gaza and imperialists paid their grants instead to the PA.

However Hamas did not force the issue of their election in the West Bank, which continued under the rule, not to say dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority.

The corruption of and repression by the PA is not an opinion of the Palestinian resistance organisations alone but is widely acknowledged by all kinds of western observers, including enemies of the Resistance,¹¹ which is one reason the imperialist are calling for its ‘revamping’.

Meanwhile Abbas, ‘President’ of the PA since its inception in 2003 (and ensuring no elections since) is already laying out how democratic the rule of the PA in Gaza would be. Unlike two decades ensuring no elections in the West Bank, Abbas has been enthusiastically preparing for them in Gaza.

He seems to feel quite confident in the outcome of elections which is perhaps not surprising since he has stated that only those in agreement with the imperialist positions and the traitorous one of the PA will be allowed to stand or field candidates.

Regarding weapons, Abbas’ statements have seemed a bit contradictory. On the one hand he said that the Palestinian State alone should hold weapons while on the other he declared that the Palestine State will be unarmed.

However we can understand this to mean that Abbas and his types will ensure they are armed so as to control the Palestinians but will never use weapons against the Zionist Occupation. Even had we not the record of the Palestinian Authority to draw upon, this is clearly not a deal to support.

But it will be supported – in the first place by most of the imperialists and their client states and perhaps later by the Zionists who fear even a mention of a Palestinian State and also by those ‘friends of the Palestinians’ among the liberals and social democrats because it will bring ‘peace’.

And for them, hopefully eliminate or reduce the influence of Muslims (in particular those who are sworn to resist colonisation and imperialism). And isn’t it after all better than genocide by starvation and bombing? And so on.

We in Ireland know – or should know – that such patch solutions don’t work for the people. Our nation’s similar makeover in 1921 resulted in civil war and, within the colonial statelet, pogroms, greater poverty than anywhere in the UK, civil rights marches and sectarian assassinations.¹²

And of course, internment and an ultimately unsuccessful national resistance war of three decades. On the other side of the British Border, it meant years of underdevelopment, emigration, clerical domination and imperialist appropriation of natural resources, labour and infrastructures.

The alternative being offered to the Palestinians was summed up by a patriot at his trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to hang:

“If we are to be indicted as criminals, to be shot as murderers, to be imprisoned as convicts, because our offence is that we love our land more than we value our lives, then I do not know what virtue resides in any offer of self-government held out to brave men on such terms.

Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth, a thing no more to be doled out to us, or withheld from us, by another people than the right to life itself, than the right to feel the sun, or smell the flowers, or to love our kind.

It is only from the convict these things are withheld, for crime committed and proven, and my land, that has wronged no man, has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others, my land is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal.

If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.

If there be no right of rebellion against this state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance, then I am sure that it is better for men to fight and die without right than to live in such a state as this.

Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong, where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to gather the fruits of their own labours …

and, even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them then, surely, it is a braver, a saner and truer thing to be a rebel, in act and in deed, against such circumstances as these, than to tamely accept it, as the natural lot of men.”¹³

It seems to me that throughout history there have been people that it was crucial for the dominant system to defeat but of which their resistance was difficult for the system to overcome.

The culture of these people resisted domination and, like grass flattened by passing footsteps, sprang up again. And again and again.

Perhaps it was the strength of these peoples’ cultures, the way their stories of themselves could not be supplanted by the stories of the invader, of the occupier, or perhaps it was some special quality of their leaders.

Perhaps it was their ability, as leaders and as people, to draw others in under the banner of resistance.

These people fought their occupiers, occasionally winning, often defeated in battle but rising again and again. Where leaders compliant to the Occupation arose, they were overthrown or sidelined, the people again taking the road of resistance. As a people, they rejected ‘peace’ in bribes or chains.

The examples of such people that march and flock into my mind as this thought occurs to me include in ancient times perhaps the Gauls, certainly the Irish and in modern times the Irish again, the Indigenous American Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache – and the Palestinians.

It is something to see now, all the European imperialists and the imperialist client regimes of the Arab world in a united front to try to pacify the Palestinians, to occupy Gaza and to force the resisting Palestinians under their client manager of the ‘Palestine’ Authority.

It is doubtful that they will succeed and we should hope that they don’t, not only for the sake of the Palestinians and other people of West Asia (the ‘Middle East’) but for our own sakes, fighting the oppression of imperialism and colonialism and the exploitation of our labour by capitalism.

For as observed earlier, the struggle of the Palestinians has destabilised the imperialist system, exposed the fraud of an international humanitarian legal system and in its member states exposed the frauds of capitalist democracy, free press and government representing the will of the people.

Solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at Zionist genocide and imperialist collusion has brought millions of previously uninvolved people into street action which bodes well for the future and ill for the imperialist system. It’s been an education we need to continue.

End.

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Footnotes

1Within the Irish state this is also the position of Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Social Democrats and Labour.

2Commenting on this and in particular on the Australian Prime Minister’s statement on the question, Ali Albunimah of the Electronic Intifada podcast on 25/09/2025 pointed out that the question of ‘right’ was only mentioned once, and that was in reference to Israel’s alleged ‘right to self-defence’, never with regard to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (a right recognised in the UN Charter, unlike the ‘right of a state to self-defence’ which does not exist).

3AI summary: A bantustan was a politically created territory for black Africans in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) during the apartheid era, officially termed “homelands” or “black states”. The policy aimed to segregate and control the black population by granting them limited self-governance within these ethnically defined areas, which were never recognized internationally and were reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. The term “bantustan” was a critical term coined from “Bantu” and the Persian suffix “-stan” (meaning “land”).

4 “… based on pre-1967 lines and in line with international law and UN resolutions.”

5 https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165509

69^th December 2025.

7 https://www.iranintl.com/en/202509165715

8The Palestine Liberation Organisation, in its time comprising the secular liberation organisations of Fatah, PFLP and DFLP. The PA has repressed alternative resistance organisations and suppressed freedom of speech, even to arresting people for criticising it or posting other material on social media. Its forces have killed a civilian critic and a Resistance fighter.

9See https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-recognising-palestine-rewards-israels-pa-collaborators-not-palestinian-people

10Mass media sources usually represent this as the “Hamas takeover” which conceals the fact that they were elected to replace the previously-elected Fatah administration, whose officials refused to concede the popular will.

11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Palestine

12In case of misinterpretation, innocently or otherwise, let me state that by ‘sectarian assassinations’ I mean those carried out by British colonial proxies, i.e. Loyalist murder gangs.

13This was part of the speech of Roger Casement at his trial; my only change was to substitute the words “my land” for his own: “Ireland.” Casement’s was the 16^th execution arising out of the 1916 Rising in Ireland though he received a criminal trial instead of military court and was hanged instead of being shot by firing squad, as were the earlier 15.

Sources

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/annex-new-york-declaration-06aug25/

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165509

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202509165715

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-recognising-palestine-rewards-israels-pa-collaborators-not-palestinian-people

IS ISRAEL CAPABLE OF KEEPING TO AN AGREEMENT?

On October 22, 2025October 26, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, Palestine, peace processes, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

It’s a legitimate question in view of the Zionist state’s actions preventing aid entry and killing Palestinians every day since it signed a ceasefire agreement — but also from historical,¹ cultural and perhaps even psychological standpoints.

Since 11 October the Israeli Occupation Force has killed 46 Palestinians Palestinians, including 11-year-old Mohammed Bajhat Al-Hallaql and injured 132 others since the ceasefire took effect. Half of the victims were children, women, and elderly people.²

Among the dead was the Abu Shaban family, completely wiped out, seven children and two women.³

As winter looms, tents and construction materials are blocked. And as sowing time for next year’s crops is here, Israel has blocked agricultural materials, including seeds, fertilizers, and solar panels from entering⁴ to replace the IOF-destroyed crops and greenhouses.

The IOF has also greatly restricted the number of aid trucks it allows entry, from 700 to 450 daily, which is another kind of ceasefire violation and banned key food items like meat, poultry, and livestock. And allowed just 7% of the agreed quota of 50 gas and oil trucks daily in nine days.

The latest large scale violation, as I was writing this, was its killing of more than 30 Palestinians after one of the IOF’s bulldozers ran over Israeli unexploded ordinance in Rafah, which they decided to frame on the Resistance and use as an excuse for more murder and Rafah gate closure.⁵

Reports have now emerged of IOF recently burning and otherwise destroying urgently-needed food aid. Which of the ceasefire negotiators or guarantors has called the IOF or the Zionist State’s leadership out over this? None, of course.

And of course too, that’s one important reason why it keeps doing it – because it can. And because none of its allies will call it to account. But perhaps also there is some kind of deep Zionist bias against sticking to agreements made.

Last Autumn, in the midst of its unsuccessful attack on South Lebanon, the IOF asked its allies to seek a ceasefire and truce with Hezbollah. Weakened by exploding pagers⁶ and assassination of their renowned leader Nasrallah, Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire.

That was on 27 November 2024. Of course, true to form, the IOF violated the ceasefire daily, though Hezbollah kept to the terms. Not dozens or scores of violations, not hundreds … No, the IOF has committed approaching 3,000 separate violations by April this year.⁷

The brass neck of the Zionists sometimes exceeds belief. In the midst of their daily ceasefire violations, they are now threatening to again prevent food and medical aid entering until the Resistance complies with the ceasefire agreement.

Hamas has not delivered all the prisoner bodies, it says. But Hamas replies that it delivered all those it could access, others lying under tons of rubble, remains of buildings collapsed by IOF bombing, which is what killed the Israeli prisoners of the Resistance (probably along with their guards).

But somehow this is a reason to abandon the ceasefire! Locating the dead prisoners requires rubble-moving machinery and expert forensic help. The IOF long ago bombed all such Palestinian machinery to scrap and are not permitting its entry from any others at the moment either.

At the same time, the Zionists rejected two of their own forces’ bodies. One was a non-Israeli who worked for them and another a Palestinian in Israeli uniform, possibly a human shield employed or coerced by the IOF, sent into a tunnel and killed by the Resistance.⁸

Meanwhile, what of the estimated 2,000 Palestinian bodies held by the Zionists? As a Hamas statement said, their return is a question of human rights and law, not for negotiation. But when the few have been delivered as part of this ceasefire agreement, some have shocked their receivers.

Bodies showing hands tied behind backs and with bullet wounds … or a rope around the neck … signs of blindfolding over eyes, signs of torture … Some with tank-tread marks; all without identification, leaving a grotesque task for the Gaza administration and possible relatives.

And still … and still … the Zionists scream about the Resistance not fulfilling the terms of the ceasefire. I would think them to be totally beyond shame, were it not for the lies and excuses for their behaviour that they spew out into the world, which indicates a certain feeling of guilt.

Well, that is the Enemy. Not just of the Palestinians, or the Lebanese, or Syrians, or Yemenis, Iranians, Iraqis … No, they are the enemies of humanity, just as the Nazis were enemies of more than their victims and the countries they attacked.

And this Enemy is ready to resume the genocide at any time.

End.

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*And yet … still* (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)

FOOTNOTES

1 https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-israels-history-of-breaking-ceasefires/410

2 https://qudsnen.co/hamas-releases-full-report-on-israeli-violations-of-trumps-gaza-ceasefire/

3Ibid

4Ibid

5 https://www.palestinechronicle.com/us-government-knew-hamas-was-not-behind-rafah-blast-reports/

6Yet another war-crime by the Zionist State, this time by its intelligence services.

7 https://thecradle.co/articles/nearly-200-killed-in-2740-israeli-violations-of-ceasefire-with-lebanon

8 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/4th-body-handed-over-by-hamas-said-to-be-west-bank-palestinian-used-by-idf-in-gaza-as-a-human-shield/ As has been observed by some military commentators, the IOF do not go down into Resistance tunnels they find but blow them up instead. If this man was in a tunnel in IOF uniform the chance are high he was sent down by the IOF under threat (as they have done with others into a hospital or houses they suspect might be booby-trapped) or perhaps just considered ‘expendable’.

SOURCES

Gaza Government report on Israeli violations: https://qudsnen.co/hamas-releases-full-report-on-israeli-violations-of-trumps-gaza-ceasefire/

Israeli ceasefire violations in Lebanon: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/17/iran-condemns-ongoing-israeli-strikes-in-lebanon-as-ceasefire-violation

An Israeli history of ceasefire violations and breaking agreements: https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-israels-history-of-breaking-ceasefires/410

Israeli detention of many hundreds of Palestinian bodies: https://bylinetimes.com/2025/05/28/israel-cemeteries-of-numbers-gaza/

SAVAGE GARDA REPRESSION OF PALESTINE SOLIDARITY ACTION

On October 6, 2025October 26, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Journalism, Mass Media Criticism, Police Violence, Political Analysis, US Imperialism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCHERS PEPPER-SPRAYED AND BATONED WITHOUT WARNING.

An action on Saturday in an attempt to stop the genocide of Palestinians was brutally repressed by Gardaí pepper-spraying the marchers without warning before beating many with truncheons and threatening others, then issuing a lying statement.

On Saturday (4^th October) the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign had organised another of their monthly National marches from the Garden of Remembrance through Dublin city centre to Leinster House¹ but a much smaller section departed for Dublin Port.

*View of a section of the Palestine solidarity march on Saturday proceeding along O’Connell Street.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

In the context of port protest shut-downs in various parts of the world, Italy in particular, the intention seemingly was to blockade traffic into and out of Dublin Port; also in the context of the Irish state being a huge importer of Israeli products, second only to the USA.

The shut-down marchers left the main march at O’Connell Bridge and proceeded along the Liffey quays heading for the Port as IPSC stewards tried to discourage anyone from joining them, stooping as low as to accuse them over a loudspeaker of splitting the march and of betraying Gaza.

There had been a number of Port traffic blockade actions recently, all of which had ended without violence. No doubt the Irish ruling class were worried that they might escalate and spread and gave orders to the Gardaí to attack the marchers and to terrorise any others from emulating them.

As the marchers reached the Public Order Unit police line and stopped, some of the police began to push marchers, almost immediately some Gardai standing in a second row starting to pepper-spray marchers over the heads of their colleagues but the wind pushed some of it back in their faces.

POU Gardaí to the right of the crowd then drew their truncheons and started to strike viciously at the marchers, who were now pushing into the Garda line. Eventually the marchers broke, people staggering off to the side, eyes streaming, unsteady on their feet. Even then, they were pursued.²

At least two marchers were arrested at the event and another in a solidarity demonstration outside the Criminal Court building that evening. The charges include Public Order charges and resisting arrest. Once again, marchers complained they were forcibly strip-searched in the police cells.³

CAPITALIST MEDIA

RTÉ online’s report was clearly totally based on a Garda statement without any attempt to investigate, although video footage was soon circulating on social media. Try to contact participants for their side of the story? See whether there were photos or video clips available? Don’t be silly!

The Garda account is totally at variance with what can be seen on the video, as has often been the case. One recalls the assault with a length of wood by a fascist on an LGBT campaigner who was observing a National Party rally outside Leinster House and a Garda told her to leave the area.

The Garda statement to the media on that occasion was that there had been no incidents but unfortunately for them there was ample video recording of the event, the assault, the victim’s head streaming with blood, the senior Garda ordering her away … and they had to change their story.

A few weeks prior to that, unarmed antifascists counter-protesting an anti-masking protest organised by fascists on Custom House Quay were attacked by fascists wielding clubs and metal bars. As the antifascists fought back, the POU charged in and attacked the antifascists!

On that occasion too their statement to the press completely omitted that event.

The media is doing a good job of exposing themselves as not only keeping to the imperialist pro-Zionist discourse about events in Gaza and the rest of West Asia, but keeping also to the home front discourse that big business and cops are good and protesters a problem.

We appear in the Irish state to be entering a period of Garda repression backed up by media acquiescence, similar to what was passed through in the 1980s, with Garda repression on the street but also operations by the ‘Heavy Gang’, raiding and beating up detainees to obtain a ‘confession’.

The liberal civil rights sector was quite active then calling out Garda violence, framing of innocent people and judicial collusion. There is much less of that liberal resistance to be seen these days.

*A rare enough sight – an Irish-language placard on Saturday’s march in Dublin.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

THE IPSC MARCH

The IPSC went ahead on Saturday with many thousands on their march, demonstrating once again, as over the past two years, that the Irish public is overwhelmingly in support of the Palestinians and totally against the genocide and ethnic cleansing by the Zionist state.

Over the years, the IPSC’s activities have contributed to that awareness and sympathy in Irish society but so too have the actions of the Israeli governments and their armed forces, captured in photos and videos by journalists and ordinary Palestinians and posted on social media.

But Israel has not ceased its genocide; not one Palestinian life has been saved by the marches. The Irish Government has not ceased any of its concrete collusive actions with Israel. The imports continue, the armaments fly through Irish airspace, Shannon airport continues militarised.⁴

The IPSC’s Chairperson admitted as much, speaking at their rally near Leinster House: “Simon Harris has called Israel’s actions ‘genocide’, ‘unconscionable’ and ‘unacceptable’ — yet the Irish Government is barely lifting a finger to end Ireland’s deep complicity in this genocide.”

*A section of the Palestine solidarity main march in Dawson Street, while thousands more are already in Molesworth Street (out of sight to the right of photo).* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Had the IPSC mobilised the thousands to march down to the docks, it would have been a very different story on Saturday. Something to make the Government really reconsider its collusion. The IPSC could still do that. But will it? We can hope but current practice tells us otherwise.

Then others will have to do the deed. Others like Mothers Against Genocide, Action for Palestine Ireland and Saoirse Don Phalaistín, for example. And they will continue to be assaulted and arrested, facing fines, restrictions on freedom of movement and … ultimately, no doubt … jail.

Apart from the baton and pepper-spraying injuries, one of the marchers is reported to have a broken arm. Two were arrested at the Port and one at the court solidarity protest Saturday evening. Today others attended court in solidarity with one of the arrested (who had abrasions on her cheek).

We should be part of these disruptive actions and if we are not, for whatever reason, the least we can do is to call out those who denounce them and to organise support for those who are, in and out of the courts.

End.

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*Gathering outside the Dublin Court in solidarity with one of the assaulted and arrested Port marchers. Her case was postponed.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1Sometimes another Government building.

2All of that is evident from the video footage shot from that side of the event. Violent shoving by Gardaí sent some people to the ground, including a disabled woman.

3There was outrage expressed when Gardaí compelled detainees at a Mothers Against Genocide protest outside Leinster House to strip in the police cells. The Minister for Justice claimed that Garda CCTV footage refuted those claims but strangely, it appears that no CCTV footage was available when lawyers asked to view it. https://www.instagram.com/mothersagainstgenocide/p/DJ_nOewxQAp/

4And the Irish Central Bank intends, after a pause, to offer Israeli war bonds once more.

SOURCES

Capitalist media: https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2025/1004/1536847-two-arrested-after-protest-near-dublins-port-tunnel/

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/thousands-call-for-sanctions-on-israel-during-dublin-rally-1815092.html

Citizen video of the POU attack at the Port: Instagram

AMERICAN FOOTBALL INVASION MEETS PALESTINE SOLIDARITY RESISTANCE

On September 29, 2025October 26, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Ireland, Massacres, Middle East, Palestine, Political Analysis, US Imperialism, USA, Zionism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

For a few days it has seemed a little like an invasion around Dublin city centre by Vikings and Steelers. Not Scandinavians as of old with some others¹ but fans of two competing teams of the American National Football League.

*One of the banners at the Drumcondra/ Clonliffe junction around 2.45pm.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

There is little social following for the game called ‘American Football’ in Ireland, where we have a massive following for Gaelic football and soccer through their respective associations, the Gaelic Athletic Association and the League of Ireland (the latter in particular much underfunded).

Years ago, in his capacity as Minister of Arts at the time, Michael D. Higgins, presiding at an event, criticised what he called “US imperialist cultural penetration” of Europe. This has been ongoing for decades mainly through cultural products of films and soap operas, cartoon films and comics.

Prior to that, we were subjected mainly to British cultural products in magazines, comics, films and soap operas. And of course the Irish state only set up its own TV broadcaster in the 1960s.

For years these products have been impacting on our consciousness and subconsciousness, including on some of our speech patterns in English. But attempts to promote NFL have failed; however, never before has such a big effort been made and with such financial backing.

*The small group at the Drumcondra/ Dorset St junction and Canal/ Railway bridge as I approached it just after 1pm.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

For this one game, the Irish Government has awarded just short of 10 million euro in funding – i.e. one third of their funding for the entire sports sector in Ireland last year. While of course this is being promoted as a revenue opportunity for business, there are stronger reasons.

The NFL is a strong supporter of the imperialist US military and the US itself shows signs of gearing up for another war – against whom is unclear but Venezuela, Iran or China are likely targets. In addition, the US is the main supplier of arms and political backing to Israel.

And where does the Irish ruling class want us? Why, with the USA of course! No more of this skulking around! Make Shannon officially a US military airport, have the RAF and UK Navy officially patrolling our seas and airspace, where arms for Israel can also fly through officially!

The often discussed ‘Triple Lock’ is all that appears to be holding back the Irish ruling class from dumping the state’s tattered neutrality² — and they are working on that. But meanwhile, they seek to orientate us towards the leader of the western imperialist pack – through US sport.

The NFL will be doing their part, apparently going to make sure every child in the Irish school system will receive an NFL pack. Hey! USA! Leave our kids alone!

This weekend, the Irish Gombeen³ ruling class, through their State, supplied extra police to keep the US visitors safe around the city and on Saturday around Croke Park, while police helicopters kept eyes in the skies. And there was extra Garda tolerance also for UStater illegal street-drinking.⁴

*At the Clonliffe/ Drumcondra Road junction at 1.00pm*, *announced rallying time*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

THE PROTESTERS

Many – including I – only learned on Saturday of the protest called by the IPSC⁵-allied Sports for Palestine campaign group against the NFL game programmed for Croke Park on Sunday between the Vikings and Steelers teams. A call-out to attend with flags and placards.

That seems a bit unfriendly towards visitors, sports enthusiasts, right? Fans just happy to support their teams and visit lovely Ireland at the same time, right?

Apart from the considerations of imperialism and war-orientation listed earlier, the USA is openly backing politically and supplying militarily a daily genocide against Palestinians. NFL is a significant cultural representation of the US and as such must be prepared to suffer for it.

*Small group of protesters further down Clonliffe Road at junction of road leading up to Croke Park entrance, approached by an NFL fan (Steelers?) who wants his photograph taken with them*. (Photo source: *Participant*)

While most of the Palestine solidarity protesters, maybe 60 at its highest point congregated at the junction of Clonliffe and Drumcondra roads, a small group of four took up position at the road leading to the Croke Park Stadium entrance and stood there with Palestine flags.

I headed for the railway and canal bridge at the Dorset Street junction, where I could see a Palestinian national flag and a placard calling to “Free America from AIPAC control.”⁶ On the way I passed NFL merchandise sales and young women handing out free canned energy drinks.

Greeting the other two at the Bridge, I extended my flagpole bearing the Starry Plough flag and took up station with them. Some passing traffic beeped our flags in solidarity.⁷ My standard litany to the passing NFL fans was: “Shame on the USA, supporting genocide! Shame, shame, shame!”

A comrade near me denounced “The United States of Israel”, alternating with attacking US responsibility for and complicity with genocide, while the other shouted about how wrong it is to be killing children. After awhile another comrade joined us but we never had more than four there.

*Two of the Special Branch of the Gardaí, ‘spotting’ for the State.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

REACTIONS OF NFL FANS

The reactions of the passing fans to what we were saying varied considerably.

By far the majority of them attempted to ignore us while some looked at us with seeming curiosity but no other reaction. Some seemed embarrassed, covering the feeling with a smile. A small minority said they agreed with us, some even saying they were ashamed of the USA.

A tinier minority still exhibited hostility and outrage towards us, as in waving us away or giving the hand gesture for “blah, blah” (which a few verbalised also). A few laughed but that was their mistake, as I then shouted “Laughing about genocide? LAUGHING about GENOCIDE!”

One big man insulted us in an Irish accent but received as good from us, while an NFL fan who spoke in support of ‘Israel’ wilted under a barrage of “Genocider!” shouts. Another who mentioned “the hostages” was asked whether he was referring to “the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners?”⁸

Yet another accused us of generalising but received a response about arming Israel, to which he responded that we (Ireland, presumably) are feeding Israel. Another still wanted to avoid responsibility by saying that he’s “a Democrat” but was asked what that had to do with anything.

One other said he was from Belfast and yet another from England but the latter in particular got nowhere with that, considering Starmer’s support for the Zionazis. An older US man supported by two women claimed that we were being fooled by Hamas propaganda – there is no genocide!!!

It seems likely that those UStaters who encountered protesters and who are already opposed to what the US leadership is doing will return home at least a little strengthened in their position but also with some stories to tell people there about how the US is being viewed in a part of Europe.

Those who are unsure about what they think will probably doubt the leaders of the USA and dominant rhetoric even more. Some will be mostly unaffected and some may even harden their hostility to all critics of the USA. On the whole, I think the effects will be of a positive nature.

But even if so, of course nothing we did will be stopping the genocide for even one minute. Only states have the power to do that and were the Irish Government to ban all imports from ‘Israel’ outright, that would have a huge and immediate impact on the genocider’s economy.⁹

*Another of the banners at the* *Drumcondra/ Clonliffe junction around 2.45pm.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Sunday’s was a useful but minor action in the propaganda part of the liberation war – Palestinian national liberation, of course but also part of our own. However it could have had much greater visual impact. Drumcondra Road is on a much-travelled road including for Airport traffic.

The road also carries bus public transport routes from and to various Dublin destinations. There are three possible routes off it for access to Croke Park. We only covered two, one with a minimum presence. The size of the concentration at Clonliffe junction was understandable but unnecessary.

The source of much of this weakness appears to be the very late call-out to the protest – only the day prior for many, possibly most. Yet the NFL game must have been planned for many months.

end.

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Footnotes

Sources & Useful Links:

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2025/0928/1535663-is-it-good-economics-to-pay-10-million-for-an-nfl-match

https://www.gameoverisrael.com/en

https://www.facebook.com/IrishSportForPalestine/

1Ireland was raided by Vikings from Scandinavia from 795 CE, they later establishing settlements in Dublin and along the south-east coast, also along the Shannon river and in Cork. Viking power in Ireland was broken by the 1040 CE victory of Brian Boru’s coalition (which included some Vikings, probably Norse) over the Leinster-Dublin coalition of mostly Dublin Danes, Leinster Irish and Viking mercenaries from Manx and Orkneys. The battle lasted 12 hours not far from the Croke Park stadium and part of the Viking mercenaries were caught and killed on their retreat to their ships nearby.

2Three requirements to be met before the Irish Government can send a military mission consisting of more than 12 personnel from Ireland to any part of the world.

3A pejorative term from the Irish language Gaimbín equivalent in meaning to ‘carpet-bagger’, huckster, etc. applied to the Irish neo-colonial (and neo-liberal) capitalist ruling class.

4City regulations forbid drinking of alcohol in any public place.

5Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

6The mostly Christian Zionist alliance that plays a heavy financial role in promotion of candidates for election in the USA.

7Yet in one hour outside the US Embassy or standing at Annesley Bridge the normal count of solidarity car-horn sounds would be in the fifties – among the tide of NFL fans, we just weren’t that visible to approaching traffic.

8There may be more but of those, around a third are now held under ‘administrative detention’ orders, without even the farce of an Israeli military court trial.

9The Irish state, at $3,263.345m is the second-biggest single importer of Israeli goods with only the USA exceeding it. See https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/22/which-countries-trade-the-most-with-israel-and-what-do-they-buy-and-sell

SNAIL SEX IS AGAINST GOD’S PLAN

On September 5, 2025September 5, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Satire, social commentaryLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: One minute)

Dear Editor,

Your Breaking News edition of 4 September 2025 featured a news item about a freak snail, with a left-spiralling shell, for which a freak mate was being sought.

This was disgusting use of public media light-heartedly flaunting disregard for Christian morality.

Ireland is a Christian country and public reference to the sexual act in general is bad enough but writing about snails and their sexual acts is much, much worse.

Quite apart from left-spiralling shells, snails are already freaks. It is well known that snails are hermaphrodite, that is they carry both male and female sexual organs and when one wishes to mate with another, apparently one decides whether to act the male while the other decides to act the female.

This is clearly unnatural and against God’s Plan, who created every animal as functioning male or female and the same with human beings. Snails in fact, apart from being a pest in the garden are clearly one part of Satan’s spawn. They are an abomination.

That any snail, whether with a right or a left-spiralling shell should fail to find a mate is a good thing and your publication should not be encouraging people to find it a partner. Your newspaper could be considered to be in effect pimping for it.

Publications of stories about snails and their sexual habits can only encourage the latest trend in human deviation known as ‘trans’ where some people choose to consider themselves and to be considered as a gender other than that with which they were born. This too is an abomination.

Please return to God’s plan and cease printing such dangerous and disgusting reports.

Sincerely,

*A Sinestra variant (left-spiralling) snail, Cepaea Nemoralis photographed in Galicia, Spanish state.* (Photo cred: *Raymond JC Cannon*)

SOURCE REFERENCE

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/hunt-is-on-to-find-a-mate-for-ned-the-snail-with-a-rare-left-coiled-shell-1799818.html

BARE-FACED EFFRONTERY FROM EUROPEAN UNION’S KALLAS

On September 5, 2025September 5, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

EU Vice-President Kallas referred to a number of state leaders meeting in China as ‘autocratic’, accusing them of challenging the ‘rules-based order’ of the Western states. But what is that ‘order’ and what are the ‘rules’ upon which it is based?

Kallas, in the course of her mostly economic briefing on behalf of the EU: While Western leaders gather in diplomacy, an autocratic alliance is seeking a fast track to a new world order. Looking at President Xi standing alongside the leaders of Russia, Iran, and North Korea in Beijing today.

These are not just anti-Western optics; this is a direct challenge to the international system built on rules. And it is not just symbolic: Russia’s war in Ukraine is being sustained by Chinese support. These are realities that Europe needs to confront.¹

Leaders of states to which Kallas objected (without North Korea’s), L-R: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jianpeng and Masoud Pezeshkian, leaders respectively of Russia, China and Iran at the Victory of Japan (WWII) parade in Beijing following the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conference. (Photo: *CNN*)

Who are the ‘western leaders’ to whom Kallas is referring? Presumably they are leaders of the “Western states”, a term usually understood to describe a bloc of the European Union, UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

A number of the European Union collection of states are imperialist and some of those are generally considered to be the leading members of the whole EU, in particular Germany and France.

Most of the European states also have a recent record of colonialism and some still rule those external colonies in part or wholly, viz: UK, France, Spain.

In addition, some have practised internal colonisation, forcing nations to submit to their integration within and submission to the particular European state; in this regard there should be added Italy and Belgium in addition to the three examples above.²

The principal non-European states of the western alliance are all European settler colonies in origin, all having practised genocide upon the indigenous people, all with a record of racism towards their indigenous and other people and one, the USA, having stocked huge slave plantations.

Given the record above, it is not surprising that these states also have a record of colonial wars and even wars upon their neighbours. In WWI, Germany and Austria fought the UK and its Dominions of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, along with France, Belgium and the USA.

In WWII, Germany and Austria with some allied states went to war with most of the remaining states of Europe and the USA and countries further afield in North Africa and the Middle East.

SINCE WWII, the UK³ has fought 41 external conflicts and a three-decades war internally (against the Resistance in a colonised part of Ireland);⁴ France fought 34 external conflicts⁵ and the USA 57.⁶ The vast majority of these conflicts have been fought in lands outside Europe or the US.

*Katja Kallas, Vice-President European Commission, who sanctified Western states in her statement and looking saintly in this photo*. (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

So, on past historical threat record, how do these “autocratic states” compare to the states Kalas complains of? They don’t even come close, of course. Ah, but wait, we are told that they do things by rules – they are part of a “rule-based order”, which those “autocratic states” are not, apparently.

The rules under which the Western states operate for decades have not prevented them supporting – including in many cases with actual arms — a European settler colony carrying out apartheid, constant war crimes and recently genocide against the indigenous people in Palestine.

The rules have allowed these Western states, as distinct from “autocratic states”, to censor news and twist media reporting into Zionist propaganda, to forbid Palestine solidarity demonstrations and beat up participants, categorise solidarity actions as ‘terrorism’ and jail Palestine supporters.

The rules have permitted the state hosting the United Nations building to decide who cannot attend; to regularly veto votes of the majority member states; to ignore decisions of international courts and sanction its officials and to have the UN humanitarian agency de-funded and staff killed.⁷

In fact, we have been taught that this ‘order’ is based on the following rules: Any member of the Western states club can do what it likes so long as a) the club leader, the USA agrees to it and b) the other members of the club don’t take any real practical adverse action (which they haven’t).

End.

FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/college-readout-press-remarks-high-representativevice-president-kaja-kallas_en

1Full text in Sources.

2Arguably Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man and the Six Counties in Ireland are nations or parts thereof colonised and incorporated into its state by England; Brittany, northern Basque Country, Corsica and Pau by France; southern Basque Country, Galicia, Catalan Countries, Andalusia, Asturies by Castille/ Spain; Sicily by Italy …

3The UK includes the nations of Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and part of Ireland, essentially ruled by England and by that understanding the 30 Years War in Ireland was ‘internal’. The Isle of Man is not formally part of the UK but is effectively under its control. France also fought an ‘internal’ war against the Basque national Resistance but that was nothing like the degree of intensity of the British one in the northern Six Counties of Ireland.

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_Kingdom

5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_France

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_wars_involving_the_United_States

7 https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-commissioner-general-gaza-summary-execution-among-more-310-unrwa

SUPERIORITY ENTITLEMENT COMPLEX AND RACIST IDEOLOGY

On August 31, 2025August 31, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Sovereignty, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 3 mins.)

A video clip of Tom Barrack, US Ambassador to Turkiye giving a press conference in Lebanon, in which he accused the journalists of ‘animalistic’ behaviour and threatened to be ‘out of there’ if they continued has led to much criticism.

I’d imagine Tom Barrack was tired and his patience thereby more easily stretched – I know myself how that can be. But in that circumstance, his diplomatic training stalled and out slipped his real inner attitude to the people to whom he had been sent as ambassador – the Arabs.

The journalists accepted it meekly but according to reports, the Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate called on US envoy Tom Barrack and the US State Department to issue a public apology to the Lebanese media. Some Lebanese politicians and ordinary civilians reacted even more angrily.

Lebanese in the south held a protest rally and scrawled on the ground in large letters that “Barrack is animal” and reportedly had baskets of tomatoes ready to throw at this man who is not only the USA’s Ambassador to Turkiye but is in fact also their envoy to much of the region.

*Protest at Barrack’s comments in southern Lebanon where he had been intending to go but then cancelled his visit.* (Photo sourced: *Online*)

As a result Barrack had to cancel trips to other Lebanese regions. Most media reporting and criticism has focused on Barrack’s description of the reporters’ behaviour as ‘animalistic’ but his following words were actually more insulting and had wider implication.

“This is the problem with what’s happening in the region,” he said. In other words, the allegedly “animalistic behaviour” of the reporters was symptomatic of the Lebanese in general, in Barrack’s opinion and further, one can reasonably speculate Barrack meant, of the wider Arab world.

Of course in Barrack’s mind the USA is the epitome of civilisation, the standard by which to judge all others. A European settler colony of 250 years built on genocide of the indigenous inhabitants through massacres, disease, starvation, ethnic cleansing and racist culturecide.

The USA built up an extensive agricultural plantation system maintained on slave labour, both kidnapped and imported and also raised domestically.

The colony expanded aggressively to the lands colonised by other settlers, such as the Spanish, French and the Mexican Empire, bringing legalised slavery to lands where it had been abolished, then declared the whole southern sub-continent a sphere of influence for itself alone.

This epitome or high point of civilisation is $1.8 trillion in a debt¹ that rises annually, has among the highest prisoner per population ratio in the world,² one of the highest ratios of murders³ and of number of fatal gunshot incidents per population and of regular massacres by lone gunmen.

Most of the citizens of this state will be unaware of these facts: surveys have revealed time and again the low level of geographical, political and historical awareness of even high school students in the USA.⁴

*Tom Barrack (centre, next to US Ambassador to Lebanon) in meeting with President Lebanon, Joseph Aoun in June 2025.* (Photo: *Reuters*)

So where does this attitude of superiority in an ambassador of this state come from? The USA became a world power after WWI through its industrial and military power, its oil and gas reserves and possession of the Atom Bomb. Might is not only right but the right – the right to decide!

The right to decide for others whether and how they should live. And inevitably with that must accompany the attitude of the unfitness of others to make those decisions for themselves. Not just ‘manifest destiny’ for the USA but to decide the destiny of the rest of the world.

Of course, there are categories among the unfitting and, since the settler colony was of Europeans, all other ethnic groups are even less fitted, in the US imperialist mentality. Hence the attitude toward Arabs, which annoyingly are sitting on even more oil and gas reserves than are the US.

The contribution to this attitude by the despised themselves is not to be underestimated. The ruling elites of nearly all Middle Eastern/ Eurasian states, by their servile and self-interested complicity, have contributed to the superior feeling of the rulers of the USA exhibited by Tom Barrack.

The behaviour Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Joe Rajijehplays to the feeling of USA superiority. While Israeli planes bomb their land daily, drones assassinate people, troops invade, on what are they focused? Why on what the US wants, the disarming of Hezbollah!⁵

The first report on the Barrack meeting with Aoun from the Lebanese Presidential Office was of glowing servility and did not mention Barrack’s insulting behaviour,⁶ while a second statement reacting to the outrage apologised on Barrack’s behalf without mentioning him by name.⁷

Everybody who has played the servile yet threatening ‘nigger’, the drunken and dangerous ‘paddy’, has justified the superior attitude. All who abandoned their language and aped their conquerors did so too. But it is a process that can be reversed – at least by and for the subjugated.

You’ll be able to recognise those reversing the process by their descriptions in the western mass media – they will be the ‘militants’, ‘diehards’, ‘extremists’ and even the ‘terrorists’. They will usually also be described as ‘proxies’ of some state to which the Imperial West is opposed.⁸

End.

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APPENDIX

Tom Barrak is the son of Lebanese immigrants to the USA and has built his career initially around law, then property and other investments and politics, as a political and business fixer for high-level Saudi and US interests.

He has never been mistaken for a friend of the people, as opposed to of ruling circles, whether in the US or in the Middle East.

Whether a sense of shame at his origins and wanting to aspire to the values of the modern USA or his sense of entitlement as a US Government official is the cause of his attitude to the Arab Middle East world is unknown.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-deficit/

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2020/04/24/why-kids-know-even-less-about-history-now-and-why-it-matters/ and https://thepigeonpress.org/american-students-flunk-geography/ along with many other sources.

5The US-backed Israelis, whose daily violations of the Lebanon-Israel truce (guaranteed by the US!) have reached thousands, want areas of South Lebanon for permanent occupation and want the Lebanese Government to resettle their populations, according to reports of recent talks.

6President Joseph Aoun received a US delegation, which included Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Representative Joe Wilson, in the presence of US envoy Tom Barrack, Ms. Morgan Ortagus, and US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

The meeting reviewed the situation in Lebanon and the region, as well as the outcomes of the delegation’s tour, in addition to the talks held by Envoy Barrack and Ms. Ortagus in Israel and Syria.

During the meeting, President Aoun renewed his gratitude to the US administration and Congress for their continued attention to Lebanon and their commitment to assist it, in line with the directives of US President Donald Trump.

He was also briefed by the delegation members on the results of their visit to Damascus, expressing great satisfaction with what they conveyed regarding Syria’s readiness to establish the best possible relations with Lebanon. He emphasized that this reflects a shared will and desire between the two countries.

President Aoun also reaffirmed Lebanon’s readiness to immediately address outstanding bilateral issues in a spirit of brotherhood, cooperation, good neighborliness, and the historic ties between both peoples, stressing Lebanon’s full support for the unity and territorial integrity of Syria. (Reported by The Cradle)

7The Presidency of the Republic regrets “the words that were inadvertently spoken from its podium by one of its guests today. It emphasizes its absolute respect for human dignity in general, and wishes to reaffirm its full appreciation for all journalists and accredited media correspondents in particular, extending to them its greetings for their efforts and dedication in carrying out their professional and national duties.”

8An old trope to rob the opponents of their own motivation and legitimacy. The insurgents of 1798 and 1803 in Ireland were described by the British as agents of France; the insurgents of 1916 as agents of Germany.

SOURCES

https://t.me/thecradlemedia/41608

“Smash Landlords and Vultures – Universal Social Housing Now!”

On August 19, 2025August 19, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Political Analysis, Socialist Revolution, SongLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

The Irish socialist Republican group Anti-Imperialist Action today issued a call to revolution centred around a need for universal social housing to resolve the chronic housing crisis in Ireland (and in particular in Dublin).

This housing crisis has at January’s count left nearly 15,300 living on the streets or in emergency accommodation¹ with another unknown number in inappropriate accommodation such as sofa-surfing with friends and relatives or in IPAS centres for refugees.

Rampant property speculation has made a handful of bankers and speculators very rich and along with the social misery of thousands, facilitated the demolition of buildings of historical and architectural importance and their replacement by usually unsightly glass and concrete.²

Well, so what of AIA’s call? Different organisations make various calls at different times but do they have any effect? However, this one has some important distinctions, one of which is that this organisation actively practised its preaching when it called for the occupation of empty properties.

In May 2022 the AIA founded a sub-group called Revolutionary Housing League that occupied empty buildings in Dublin, refused to comply with court orders³ to evacuate or, in court, to agree to bail conditions that they would desist from further building occupations.

*‘James Connolly House’ in occupation by the RHL in May/ June 2022.* Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The first building targeted on May 1^st was a former Seamen’s Institute building on Eden Quay, renamed Connolly House, metres from O’Connell Bridge, empty for years since the Salvation Army, a religion-based charity NGO, had lost government funding for its youth homeless accommodation project.

On the morning of June 9^th 2022 over a hundred Gardaí, with an armed unit on standby and a helicopter overhead, stormed the building⁴ and arrested the only occupants, two RHL supporters. In court later that day, they were bailed without making any promise not to re-occupy buildings.⁵

It seemed that the State was sensitive to the dangers of creating martyrs around the housing crisis.

Instead, RHL renewed its call for mass action across the country to occupy empty buildings. And went on to occupy other buildings, including Ionad Sean Heuston near the eponymous Bridge and another in Belvidere Road, eviction here also including massive police forces and helicopter.

Seen from the north bank of the Liffey, the Starry Plough flag flying high over the ‘Ionad Sean Heuston’ occupied building. The Heuston train station is behind the photographer while the Bridge is out of frame to the right. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Success for the RHA’s campaign depended on, if not a mass, at least a substantial take-up of its call to occupy empty buildings backed by civil disobedience to the courts. Neither happened and the AIA was far too small to carry the campaign on its own and so suspended it.

It is worth noting that though many organisations and individuals had agitated around housing, including the high-media-profile occupation of Apollo House in December 2016, backed by noted individuals,⁶ none had initiated the steps advocated by RHA/ AIA.

*‘Homes Not Hostels’ banner on Tara Street side of occupied Apollo House in December 2016 or January 2017. The building was later demolished and numbers of homeless people continued to rise.*
(Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Amongst a general lack of social condition agitation among the post-GFA⁷ Irish Republican movement, only the socialist-Republican éirigí organisation had militantly taken up the housing struggle while calling for universal social housing — but it had not led a campaign of occupations.

The electoral left and some anarchists had occupied some empty buildings but had either left when threatened by the State or been evicted by security thugs backed up by Gardaí, without a follow-up of further occupations. Nor had they contextualised housing occupations as part of revolution.

So the record of AIA is stand-alone among the Republican and Socialist Left so far and therefore, one might speculate, failed to inspire a mass movement.

I am not ashamed to say that I supported AIA’s campaign although I did not take part myself in any of the occupations. However I did not view it as an immediate cause for revolution, nor do I now. The Irish gombeen⁸ State, I believe, can survive the supply of universal social housing.

The ‘rack-renting’ landlords, both big and small, cannot. But the Gombeen class, closely linked to the landlords and speculators will ditch them if they are confronted – not with the suffering of the masses, about which they care not, nor protests – but with the real alternative of social revolution.

The State has access to the means to fund such a campaign of new housing construction and of renovation/ repurposing of existing empty buildings⁹ by local municipal authorities.

In such a radical change of the Irish neo-colonial capitalist system, people would have more disposable income and purchasing would increase dramatically, stimulating production and expansion of goods and services and raising people’s living standards (and expectations).

Property speculation would be hugely reduced in scope but would continue – in hotels and office blocks, for example and big projects such as transport networks. And possibly in sale of land to State and local authorities for housing projects.

So, essentially a reformist project, not revolutionary at all, right? No, not at all necessarily. Reformist projects fought for with revolutionary intent and energy, teach the masses their potential when they unite in struggle. It also tests their leaders before their eyes, in their experience.

I see universal social housing therefore as a social necessity for the mass of people living on the streets, in hotel-rooms, sofa-surfing, in insecure and inappropriate housing, facing eviction from debt-mortgaged housing (the cost of which has already been paid several times over).

Universal social housing is a social necessity and an urgent one and it is an objective for which all true humanity in Ireland should strive. Revolutionaries should fight for it, pointing towards the evils of the capitalist system and the need for its replacement by a socialist system.

The struggle should be fought relying on the strength and capacity of the working people and will need to embody civil disobedience and sacrifice, while at the same the movement needs to safeguard capacity for other struggles such as against fascism, imperialism and colonialism.

In that context therefore, I think we should unreservedly support the call of the AIA’s statement today and the headline of this article.

End

FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

Anti-Imperialist Action statement on Telegram 19/08/2025

Homelessness statistics:https://www.focusireland.ie/press-release/homeless-figures-increase-to-a-record-high-of-15286-as-focus-Ireland-urge-government-to-prioritise-new-social-housing-for-vulnerable-families/

Empty property statistics: https://www.socialjustice.ie/article/vacancy-and-dereliction-ireland

APPENDIX

Text of Anti-Imperialist Action statement 19/08/2025:

Housing is a key part of the Republican struggle for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution in Ireland.

Housing is one of the key pressure points in the class struggle in Ireland today, due to the artificial housing crisis created by those in power, designed at driving up profits for landlords and imperialist housing vultures.

Since the days of Tone, Irish Republicans have recognised that land and housing are completely tied to the fight for freedom, and today it is by showing the Republican struggle will solve the land and housing issue once and for all, to the benefit of the working class, that Republicans can mobilise our class to join the fight.

There should be no doubt about the Republican position on housing. The 1916 Proclamation stated that ‘the ownership of Ireland by the People of Ireland’. The Democratic Programme placed public right above private property and stated, It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision … to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter’.

Landlords and foreign imperialist housing vultures have no place in the Republican vision of a Free Ireland, where homes would be provided by the Republic to all Citizens.

AIA advocates a system of Universal Social Housing as the Republican Housing System that guarantees all citizens a home, and rents based on ability to pay. This system is the death knell for landlords and vultures and it is why the garrison class resists it.

AIA has played a leading roll in the militant housing direct actions of recent years and will continue to do so.

If you want to fight the landlords and vultures and work to bring about the conditions for a Republican system of Universal Social Housing, then join AIA!

Raise the cry of the working class: Smash Landlords and Vultures – Universal Social Housing Now!

1 https://www.focusireland.ie/press-release/homeless-figures-increase-to-a-record-high-of-15286-as-focus-Ireland-urge-government-to-prioritise-new-social-housing-for-vulnerable-families/

2Taking history tour groups around Dublin I often comment that Dublin has suffered three period of architectural devastation, all in the last century: 1) the British artillery bombardment during the 1916 Rising; 2) the Irish neo-colonial State’s bombardment during its Civil War; 3) the property speculators’ rampage from the 1970s onwards.
Pete St. John, in his song Dublin In the Rare Aul’ Times:

“Fare thee well, sweet Anna Liffey,

I can no longer stay

And watch the new glass cages

Spring up along the quays …”

3In one of which I was wrongfully named myself since no evidence of my presence had been provided by the landlords to the court – merely an article by me describing the occupation of ‘Sean Heuston House’ reproducing some photographs taken inside. See https://rebelbreeze.com/2022/09/22/concert-in-occupied-building-murals-pickets-and-court-cases-the-revolutionary-housing-league-spreads-the-fight/

4 https://www.facebook.com/JamesConnollyHouse/videos/2172514896242639

5I passed by this building recently which, three years later, appeared to be still empty.

6The occupiers eventually agreed to leave under a mixture of threat and promises and the building was demolished.

7The Good Friday Agreements of 1999, the Irish instalment of the imperialist pacification process, following South Africa’s and Palestine’s versions, later to visit Colombia and Turkish Kurdistan.

8From the Irish word gaimbín, first applied to the hustlers opportunistically buying up Irish land in the midst of the disaster of the Great Starvation (1845-1849) but now applied to the Irish comprador or foreign-dependent native capitalist class.

9 https://www.socialjustice.ie/article/vacancy-and-dereliction-ireland