GOMBEENS TEACH SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS A LESSON

On November 16, 2023December 26, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Israeli Zionism, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 8 mins.)

In their shameful votes last night, the Irish Government Coalition parties nevertheless taught people of social-democratic or liberal persuasion a valuable lesson. They won’t learn it of course, since it violates their world-view – but we should.

Social democrats in general, beyond the Irish political party of that name, essentially believe, despite all lessons of history, that capitalist society can be reformed through pressure of the organised labour movement and by appealing to the capitalists’ “better sense”.

Liberals believe something similar, without the trade union movement being essential. Their mantras echo through our political and philosophical culture: “Everything can be resolved through talking”, “Force solves nothing” and “The rule of law is paramount’.¹

Despite the genocidal attacks continuing and even intensifying, despite the Gombeen class’ view that the ferocious bombing would have long-term adverse effects on the Middle East and perhaps on the world, the Government parties declined to break with the imperialist bloc.

*Section of crowd, perhaps half-way, facing westward*, *away from Leinster House* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

And why should we have expected anything different from them and the class they represent? This is not even an independent class but rather a native capitalist class that grew up under foreign occupation and never resolved to overthrow its masters.²

Rendering each Caesar his due, in turn and all together, this class has kissed the feet of British colonialism and imperialism, then US imperialism and finally EU imperialism. Whatever their own view of what the wise moves might be, they always obey their masters’ wishes.

And any party that enters government here as currently constituted will act likewise to get there and even more so after arriving there.

ROAR OF SOLIDARITY OUTSIDE LEINSTER HOUSE

Knowing that a vote was imminent on motions critical of Israel, including one for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador, thousands gathered last night in Molesworth Street, opposite the metal-barricaded Leinster House, home of the parliament of the Irish State.

Packed tightly together outside Leinster House, the crowd replied with a roar to slogans led by callers: From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free! In our thousands and our millions – We are all Palestinians! Free, free – Palestine! And, yes, Israeli Ambassador – Out, out, out!

The rally had been organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the main organisation for decades engaged in Ireland in Palestine solidarity campaigning. Yet, calling for the expulsion of the Zionist State’s representative had, until now, been strangely absent from its discourse.

Not always in the past, true but so it had been until now during these five weeks of genocidal bombing by the Zionist state. In fact, it seems they had previously even asked speakers not to make that call from their platform. They were however clearly making it now and rightly so.³

And clearly, so were the speakers lined up on the IPSC platform.

Independent Sen. Frances Black whose motion on the bill to ban products from the Israeli later settlements⁴ has been held up for two years by the Government, spoke also and challenged the Government TDs to make the right choice between party and principle, to “have the balls” to vote for justice.

Matt Carthy TD, Shadow Foreign Affairs spokesperson for the Sinn Féin party, was introduced from the IPSC platform to muted applause (perhaps because of the party leaders’ earlier refusal to call for the expulsion of the Ambassador.

Carthy addressed the crowd in Molesworth Street and apart from denouncing the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, concentrated on his party’s motion for Israel’s referral to the International Criminal Court and disputed the Government’s view that additional referrals⁵ were unnecessary.

While there may be some propaganda value in such a referral, a quick check will establish the following about this institution:

The ICC has never tried a state, only individuals
The ICC has never tried a main actor or close friend of western imperialism, regardless of obvious war crimes (e.g. the USA, UK in Iraq and Afghanistan)
In its 11 years of existence, the ICC has had only 30 cases before it of which ten resulted in convictions and four in acquittals.⁶

However, the SF party spokesperson was now also calling for the expulsion of the Ambassador, since the recent turnaround of the party’s leaders on the question when Mary Lou MacDonald found her position untenable in the face of the party’s own voters and closer supporters.

Richard Boyd Barrett TD spoke as usual at such events for the People Before Profit party⁷ and excoriated the Government for their failure to apply sanctions against Israel, exclaiming: “My God, they were quick enough to do it against Russia, weren’t they?”⁸

Boyd Barrett said that if the Government won’t take the sanctions then the people must do so, the closest he came to listing how they might do so was in mentioning “occupations”, a number of which have taken place recently without any PBP involvement whatsoever.

The PBP speaker also denied that a state such as Israel, based on occupation, racism and genocide, has any right to self-defence but insisted that the targets of its attacks, the Palestinians, had every right to defence and resistance.

Holly Cairns TD, leader of the Social Democrats political party,⁹ proposer of the parliamentary motion to expel the Ambassador spoke clearly and convincingly, her speech more militant and direct than the that of the speaker from the former revolutionary Republican party.

I believe it was Cairns who asked the pointed questions with regard to taking strong sanctions against Israel with the current death toll and list of atrocities: If not now – when?

In reply to fears that the expulsion measure would make the Irish State an “outlier” in the EU, she commented to media that she would have no regrets at being “an outlier” of the current EU consensus.

Ruth Coppinger for the Socialist Party¹⁰ began by addressing the meaning of “the international community”, identifying not with the imperialist states but with solidarity demonstrations around the world including trade union blockades against shipments to Israel.

She called for such actions in Ireland today but also criticised the Palestinian assault through the apartheid Wall on October 7^th. I think it was she who called for a national walkout on World Palestinian Solidarity Day, 29^th of November.¹¹

Given the supine state and collusion of the Irish trade union movement, which neither the SP nor the PBP party have made serious efforts to challenge, a union-led walkout is unlikely and, though people may do so anyway this is likely to be difficult without organisation and leadership.

All of the speakers congratulated those in attendance and asked them to continue their solidarity actions. Many (notably not the SF speaker) also criticised the USA in general and its President, Joe Biden, in particular. The USA is the chief and financial backer of the Israeli State.

*One of the Irish language placards at the rally: “Joe of the Slaughter.”* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Although there were a number of Irish-language placards and one banner in evidence, I recall hearing not one word of Irish from the platform.

IN PALESTINE TODAY

The Israeli siege and genocidal bombing continues as the Zionist state tries to sap the resistance of the Palestinians people, destroying even their medical facilities and endeavouring to starve and terrorise them into submission.

By yesterday the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 had risen to 11,500, including 4,710 children and 3,160 women. Israel has also killed 22 civil defence and 200 medical personnel and 51 journalists.¹²

The number of injured people has reached 29,800, with about 70% of them children and women.¹³

 Wednesday’s statement from the Gaza Health Ministry said that 95 government buildings and 255 schools have been destroyed. Some 74 mosques were completely destroyed and 162 were partially damaged, in addition to three churches.¹⁴

‘It said that the Israeli army targeted 52 health centers and 55 ambulances, while 25 hospitals have run out of service.¹⁵

‘ “Israeli soldiers attacked many patients, wounded individuals, and displaced people, as well as several medical and nursing staff inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex, forcing them to undress and subjecting them to insults,” the statement added.’¹⁶

The Palestinian guerrilla movement organisations have struck back in Gaza and the West Bank and Hizbollah has entered the struggle to an extent from Lebanon. The collaborationist Arab states have become worried about their own populations, a worry shared by their imperialist masters.

But the rabid dog is loose and refuses to be restrained. What to do? Call it to heel now, or let it have its head to glut itself on blood? Difficult for the imperialist classes of the world to be certain which way to go and the divisions among them are becoming clear.

Both France and Germany EU states have banned Palestinian solidarity marches but while Germany refuses to call for any end to the bombing, President of France Macron in exclusive interview this week has called on Israel to stop killing Palestinian women and children.¹⁷

*View perhaps half-way in crowd facing Leinster House in the far distance*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Across the world, the imperialist-aligned ruling classes are in disarray. Eight states in Latin America, Middle East and Africa have now fractured diplomatic ties with Israel.

The British Labour party saw four party shadow spokespersons resign and 56 of its MPs break party discipline to vote with the Scottish National Party motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.¹⁸

The other “international community”, the one to which Coppinger referred, has been on the streets in their millions in cities across the world, on every continent, including in those of the partner states of the genocidal Israeli state.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE

Mícheál Martin had visited Palestine before in 2010¹⁹ as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the then Fianna Fáil government and was visibly affected by what he had seen. But a Minister serves the Government which in turn serves the ruling class, which in the end calls the tune.

Today Mr. Martin, as Tánaiste²⁰ of the gombeen Coalition Government, is in ‘Israel’ accompanied by the very Zionist Ambassador which last night his party and coalition party representatives had stoutly defended and who had attended by invitation his own party’s annual congress.²¹

*Mícheál Martin in ‘Israel’ today with the zionist state’s Ambassador to Ireland (centre, partially obscured)* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

With no illusions in the parliamentary road or perhaps less of them now, we are thrown back on what was always our only realistic resources – our own mobilisations, our own actions.

Short of a revolution, to be effective we can only continue to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the Zionist state and for its collaborators, native and foreign.

Above all and indeed as some of the speakers last night emphasised, we must not be discouraged and have to continue; we owe it not only to the Palestinians but also to ourselves, to our history and our future. Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach – there will be another day.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1Of course the fact that laws are written (and changed) to suit the ruling class (or at least not threaten it) and backed up by a whole violent repressive state structure of police, courts, jails and armed forces is conveniently ignored.

2Indeed, it waged war on those who were determined to fight for independence.

3Nor did its FB page share occupation protets such as those carried out by the Anti-Imperialist Action or Saoirse Don Phalaistín groups, though today they shared a post on the occupation of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs by the Ireland for Gaza group.

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

5 https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-israel-palestinians-icc-referral-6f1dd2b3af534d4d42d56a156968eae4

6 https://accessaccountability.org/index.php/2019/09/26/criticisms-and-shortcomings-of-the-icc/

7Formerly the Socialist Worker’s Movement, an Irish iteration of the (Trotskyist) Socialist Workers’ Party in Britain, much diminished from it days of greater glory but currently the largest Left party in Britain.

8Yes and Boyd Barrett was part of the condemnation of Russia and support of the Ukrainian state at the time.

9The party centre-left social democratic party was launched on 15 July 2015 by three independent TDs (members of parliament) and promotes the Nordic model and pro-European views.

10An Irish iteration of the Socialist Party in Britain, a Trotskyist party once very large there, with the Militant Tendency its entryist organisation in the UK’s Labour Party, from which it was expelled. The Irish party has had a number of members of the Irish parliament but all those still in such roles have either left to become Independents or joined the PBP-Solidarity coalition group.

11 https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-people. Student walkouts seem more likely however.

12 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-from-israeli-attacks-rises-to-11-500-gaza-based-government/3055026

13Ibid

14Ibid.

15Ibid.

16Ibid.

17 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67356581

18 https://www.breakingnews.ie/israel-hamas/starmer-suffers-major-frontbench-rebellion-in-gaza-ceasefire-vote-1552323.html

19 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/martin-retains-view-of-israeli-offensive-after-visit-to-gaza-1.637021

20Equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister; he is also leader of the Fianna Fáil political party, the one with most elected members in the Coalition Government with Fine Gael and the Green Party.

21 https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/17nt5a2/the_israeli_ambassador_at_the_ff_ard_fheis/?rdt=55045

SOURCES

UN International Day of Solidarity with Palestine: https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-people

“SAOIRSE DON PHALAISTÍN” ON GIANT SOLIDARITY MARCH IN DUBLIN

On November 14, 2023November 15, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Gaeilge, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Language, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

A Palestine solidarity demonstration of around 10,000 in Dublin on Saturday the 11^th included a bloc marching behind a banner bearing the legend Saoirse Don Phalaistín and another demanding the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

Since the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Dublin has seen at least two large solidarity events every week, one mid-week and another on Saturdays, marching to the Israeli and USA Embassies or, like this one, to the Irish State’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

In addition, there have been smaller more radical events, such as the 2-hour occupation of the offices of Qanta Capital, the landlord of the Israeli Embassy, also another of the Clarence Hotel, recently bought by an Irish company with a loan from an Israeli bank.¹

Also the occupations of offices of the Irish Dept. of Transport and of the European Commission² and a weekday evening rush-hour protest on the forecourt of Dublin’s Connolly Train Station, which hosts major east coast commuting and northern city destination lines.

*Section of the march in Cuffe Street, many still behind in Aungier Street* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

On Saturday the march began as usual with a 1.00pm gathering in the city centre, the rear of the densely-packed marchers still in O’Connell Street as the rest had crossed the river into Westmoreland Street, swung into College Green and Dame Street underway to George’s Street.

At one point the march called by the IPSC³ stretched from George’s Street all along Aungier Street, the front had turned into Cuffe Street and was already marching towards Stephen’s Green. The Department of Foreign Affairs is located on the east side of the famous inner-city park.⁴

*The front of the march marching along Stephen’s Green East while the rest is still in Cuffe Street and Aungier Street* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

The bloc marched along gathering people behind as it did so, shouting among others the slogan “Saoirse – don Phalaistín!” and “Zionist Ambassador – Out, out, out!” which was taken up by many, including those who seemed to be Palestinian or at least from the Middle East.

At a separate point, a few professionally-printed placards in Irish could be seen too, e.g “Stad an Slad” and a flag in Palestinian colours with “Saoirse don Phalaistín” printed upon it.

The other slogans that have become standard were shouted also, including the one claimed to be ‘anti-semitic’, ‘terrorist’ and ‘against the law’ by the recently sacked UK Minister of Home Affairs, claimed to be “anti-semitic” and ‘against the law’: “From the river to sea, Palestine will be free!”

Mobbing and threats by British fascists to Palestine supporters⁵ on the gigantic solidarity march in London on Saturday⁶ that ended in scuffles with the police were linked by a number of senior politicians to Braverman’s extraordinary claims of police partiality to the demonstrators.

Braverman alleged that London Met police went softly on Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in allowing them to take place while some extreme right-wing mobilisations in the past had been sternly treated – a fantastic claim as any antifascist activist in London knows well.

*Section of the crowd standing behind the Saoirse don Phalaistín banner* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

In Dublin on Saturday, upon reaching Stephens Green, the bloc stopped short of the rally outside the Dept. of Foreign Affairs where in any case the crowd was so large that the PA system of the organisers was of insufficient strength to convey to all the words of the scheduled speakers.

A large section of the march stopped behind them and a space cleared in front, at the fringes of which the people turned and joined in the bloc’s almost incessant slogans, at times applauding them. To the solidarity slogans that have become universal, those in the bloc added another two.

*Section of the crowd who have turned to face the Saoirse don Phalaistín banner*, *many joining in the slogans*. The speakers’ platform is further beyond outside the Dept. of Foreign Affairs building. (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

These were “There is only one solution – Intifada revolution!” and “Zionist Ambassador – Out, out, out!” Those slogans draw a line away from the liberal demands of “peace” and “negotiations” since the only “peace” that can exist in Israel is a pause before the next bombings.

“Saoirse – Don Phalaistín” was repeated and “Stop the bombing – Now!” seemed at one point to be offered as an alternative to “Ceasefire Now!”⁷

They also called for serious political repercussions for Israel in the expulsion of its representative in the Irish state, its Ambassador. Currently seven states have expelled Israel’s ambassadors or recalled their own – but none of them are members of the European Union.

*Section of the crowd outside the Department of Foreign Affairs* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

The Irish State IS a member of the EU and a symbolic act such as the expulsion of the representative of the Zionist state would have huge reverberations. On Wednesday motions on expulsion of the Ambassador will be debated in the parliament of the Irish State.⁸

Also, the Sinn Féin party, whose leadership recently reversed their opposition to the expulsion of the Zionist representative, will be calling on the Government to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court for investigation of war crimes.

While this might be of some use as a propaganda move, that Institution has never judged a state nor indeed anyone for war crimes who is part of the western imperialist coalition – which Israel most evidently is.⁹ The proceedings also tend to be very slow.

All in all, not only will such an action not be effective even if agreed, it will likely serve as a distraction from actions much more likely to be effective, such as expulsion of the Zionist Ambassador, along with arms and other trade sanctions.

A rally has been called to take place outside the home of the Irish parliament, Leinster House, Kildare Street at 6pm on Wednesday¹⁰ and a national demonstration on Saturday, starting at 1pm from the Garden of Remembrance.

End.

*Some demonstrators walk through Stephens Green after the march.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

FOOTNOTES

1By activists of the Irish Anti-Imperialist Action group.

2 https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/pro-palestine-activists-occupy-department-of-transport-in-dublin-demanding-no-weapons-for-israel-pass-through-shannon-airport/a497906746.html

3The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for decades the main Palestine solidarity organisation in Ireland.

4Which is coincidentally, a 1916 Rising battleground.

5One of the irritants to British fascist mentality was that the Palestine solidarity march was taking place on Armistice Weekend, an annual event including ceremonies commemorating the dead in battles of the UK’s armed forces, one major period which was ironically as part of the Allied forces in the War Against Fascism 1939-’45.

6Those same police seriously under-estimated the numbers participating at around 300,000 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/11/thousands-join-pro-palestine-march-in-london

7A ceasefire usually means everyone stops firing where they are, which could be interpreted as binding the Palestinian resistance to leave the Israeli military in occupation of Gaza without retaliation, which some have criticised as favouring the Israeli Zionists.

8The Social Democrats party have tabled the motion, which will be supported by the Sinn Féin party and by People Before Profit party, along with a number of Independents. The Coalition Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party have stated they will oppose it. At this moment the leadership of the IPSC continues to abstain from making such a call

9See References

10 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?

SOURCES

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/suella-braverman-sacked-as-british-home-secretary-1551072.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-67364745

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/11/12/mcdonald-sf-call-forh the -israeli-ambassador-expulsion-not-due-to-fears-of-being-outflanked/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?

Problems with the ICC:https://accessaccountability.org/index.php/2019/09/26/criticisms-and-shortcomings-of-the-icc/

AS DUBLIN MARCHES AGAIN FOR PALESTINE – WHERE ARE THE PROTESTS GOING?

On October 29, 2023October 29, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Censorship & Witch-hunting, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, US Imperialism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

As the sixth march or rally in Dublin in three weeks concludes, with a large one also in Armagh and others take place around the world but Israel’s genocide intensifies, we need to reflect on what is our impact with these.

We are not stopping the genocide or even slowing it down, nor are we really hurting the Israeli state, nor even stopping their Dublin Embassy churning out lies, twice criticising the President of the state for relatively mild statements and accusing Ireland of helping Hamas build tunnels.¹

*Long view section of Saturday’s march ahead along Nassau Street, Dublin* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

*View of tail end section of Saturday’s march as the rest stretched along Nassau Street, Dublin* *and further* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

This failure is not the fault of the people in what is probably the most pro-Palestinian state in Europe or indeed in the Western world. There are limited options here – but are we exploring them all?

The Irish Government, given its limitations as a neo-colonial Gombeen administration, cannot be expected to do more than flog the false and failed two-state solution and push for an immediate ceasefire, in which – though ineffective — it is going further than many another EU state.

It could send a clear message, if not of Palestinian solidarity, at least of condemnation of the genocide being carried out during these last three weeks. That might start something going around the world but this Government would have to answer for it to the British, the USA and the EU.

No, not going to happen, not from a neo-colonial ruling class. But what if the pressure to expel the Israeli Ambassador were huge? Then they could at least whine to their masters about how difficult it had become for them to hold the line – so maybe Israel should ease off the genocide?

But no, they are not under so great a pressure there either. And why is that?

On the march on Saturday, whenever the call went out to expel the Israeli Ambassador, it was enthusiastically supported. But in most places along the march, that call could not be heard, nor was it given any space in many sections.

And a major reason is that the organisation which called that demonstration and most of the demonstrations and rallies over these three weeks, not only in Dublin but in a number of other towns and cities across Ireland, is refraining from calling for the Ambassador’s expulsion.

*Giant banner carried alternately by two young women bearing the legend: “The root of violence is oppression”.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

That organisation is the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) which has been the main organisation for many years organising Palestine solidarity marches, rallies, pickets, public meetings, leafleting, information tables, film showings, quizzes, postering and lobbying.

Why is the IPSC not calling for the expulsion of the Zionist Ambassador? It can hardly be for any reason of liking her or what she stands for! Nor can it be for anything like bribery or fear. And in fact we know that at least some of the leadership do want the Ambassador expelled.

*Collection of placards and a banner seen near the back of the rally near the US Embassy on Saturday.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The reason for holding back on that demand is, sad to say, political opportunism of the social-democratic, reformist kind. To maintain a broad front and not scare off the allies. And what allies might they be so worried about losing or scaring off? Sinn Féin, it seems.

What — Sinn Féin? — one may ask with disbelief. Sure didn’t they themselves call for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador? Yes, 10 years ago, Gerry Adams called for that and probably since then a couple of times party spokespersons have done so. But that was then and this is now.

The “now” that is relevant to this is that the party has been remodelling itself to fit into the governing circles of this Gombeen neo-colony and demonstrating again and again that Sinn Féin is a safe pair of hands in which to leave the management of the Irish State.

In two municipal meetings very recently, Sinn Féin councillors abstained from voting on a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire and the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

In Derry, the motion was passed despite that abstention but according to reports SF councillors abstained also on a similar motion in Mid Ulster District Council on Thursday which failed to pass.²

In the Leinster House debate this week, SF put some amendments forward but none called for the expulsion of the Ambassador and they didn’t support the PBP amendment that did; in the end SF voted for the Government motion (not even abstaining).³

The IPSC leaders probably expect, as seems very likely, that Sinn Féin will be part of the next government and don’t want to embarrass them before that, in the mistaken belief that the party will then deliver all – or at least much – of what is needed when they are in that government.

But the leaders of the IPSC should be doing the exact opposite – they should be putting SF and its presence in the next government under pressure now and afterwards, calling all the time for the expulsion of that representative of genocide, racism, apartheid and colonisation.

But not only is the leadership of the IPSC (despite their own feelings no doubt) not calling publicly for the expulsion of the Ambassador, it seems that they are actually now also asking featured speakers not to voice that call!

It is bad enough that SF has changed from being an anti-imperialist revolutionary organisation to being a party of colonial collusion (in the 6 Counties) and neo-colonial (in the Irish state) – but now other organisations feel the need to reduce their own demands in concert!

The intelligent tactic, contrary to watering down the demands is to put those in power under greater pressure to deliver gains. That happens to be the revolutionary path also.

Solidarity demonstrator carries a giant key mock-up, signifying the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland. Somewhat ironically, Sephardic Jews also have this symbolism in respect of their expulsion, along with Moorish Muslims, from the Spanish Kingdom at the end of the 15th Century. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Speaking at Saturday’s rally near the US Embassy, Bríd Smith⁴ of the People Before Profit party did indeed call for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador and also denounced the ruling class and government drift towards NATO and PESCO (the EU’s military intervention force).

Smith said, in reference to Ireland’s struggle for independence – and well might she speak of it, coming as she does from a Republican family – that “we are standing on the shoulders of giants … who fought for our independence.”

A long and wide Palestinian flag carried by solidarity marchers (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Sadly she spoiled that by also claiming that they won independence for us.⁵ Hopefully that was an unfortunate slip of the tongue but one could not be certain of that. Over the years it has been far from clear that the PBP (SWM previously) and the SP support Irish national liberation.

At least Bríd Smith and other PBP speakers have publicly stated that Palestinians have the right to resist and this presumably means armed resistance, as explicitly stated by the Socialist Party in their leaflet distributed on the march⁶ and that is the position of the electoral left.

As for the rest of the Left, the International Marxist Tendency was also calling for “intifada revolution” on the march, as were the Anti-Imperialist Action organisation (AIA) on last week’s demonstration.

Presumably that is the position also of other Republican organisations⁷ but difficult to confirm as their participation as groups in these demonstrations is minimal, despite their long traditions of Palestinian solidarity.

The question of the right to resist and to do so in arms is a sharp dividing line between revolutionary internationalist solidarity on the one hand and liberal/ social-democratic solidarity, on the other, which seeks ‘peace’ (i.e return to status quo) rather than victory for the oppressed.

However, stating the right to resist in arms is not always what it seems; for example the SP’s leaflet condemns Hamas but does not propose any alternative armed resistance group to support, unlike the AIA for example, which clearly promotes the PFLP⁸ and without condemning any other group.

THE MARCH

On Saturday’s demonstration, thousands marched from the Spire in O’Connell Street across O’Connell Bridge and around Trinity College, along Nassau Street and then South Merrion Square. The march was heading for the US Embassy but along as many minor roads as possible.

The usual Palestinian solidarity slogans were being shouted but less of the Irish language was to be heard than was the case last week and certainly many less placards in Irish were to be seen.

“Israeli Ambassador – Out, out, out!” was audible in some sections and got good support in those but it was missing from most of the march (and no room given for it some sections), although when the demand was voiced by Bríd Smith speaking at the rally, it gathered a roar of approval.

Throughout these weeks the horrific genocidal bombing of Gaza by Israel has continued, along with a blockade of food, water, electric power and medicine.

Three days ago the number of Palestinian dead to the Israeli bombing since October 7^th passed 7,000 of which nearly half were children. That does not included those killed since then, nor Palestinians killed in the West Bank, nor bodies still to be found under rubble.⁹

The latest attack has been the imposed social media, news and electronic communication blackout as Israeli troops tested the ground for their attempt to wipe out Gazan resistance.

This is not just a blanket drawn over the abattoir which Netanyahu’s butchers have made of Gaza but also a massive interference with calls to emergency services – yet another war crime — and also for people to speak with their distraught relatives outside Gaza.

In our weak position with limited capabilities, putting pressure on all concerned to demand the expulsion of the Zionist Ambassador is one of the most effective things we can do and we should insist on support for that demand from all who claim to support the Palestinians.

End.

The crowd at the rally at end of the march. The stage is in the distance near the US Embassy, which is cordoned off by the Gardaí from demonstrators (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41253880.html Also since the Zionist Ambassador’s initial criticism of the President’s description of what her state was doing as war crimes, she returned to criticise him on public media yet again. In a number of countries around the world, recently for example in Spain and in Colombia, this has been the arrogant behaviour of Israeli Ambassadors, unused to having their dominant discourse challenged.

2I heard about this from two different sources but failed to get any information by a news search or by using Mid-Ulster District Council’s own website.

3See Sources.

4Bríd Smith is a TD (member of the Irish parliament) but reportedly not going to stand in the next general elections.

5Apart from the Irish state being a neo-colonial one, i.e nominally independent but actually a client of foreign imperialism, one-sixth of Ireland’s territory is under armed occupation by the EU.

6I did not see a PBP leaflet distributed on the march.

7In which, as a result of fundamental changes from Republican positions of the party in recent years, I am clearly not including Sinn Féin.

8Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular revolutionary Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organization founded in 1967

9 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/27/middleeast/gaza-death-toll-report-intl/index.html

SOURCES

Israeli Embassy:https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41253880.html

SF recent position on Palestine and Israel:

https://www.derrynow.com/news/home/1332621/derry-sinn-fein-councillors-join-unionists-in-refusing-to-support-gaza-motion.html

Disappointing: Sinn Féin Backs Government & Fails Palestinians

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2023-10-18/18/

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2023/1015/1410920-sinn-fein-hamas/

SOUTH DUBLIN DOCKLAND COMMUNITIES ORGANISE FOR THEIR NEEDS

On October 26, 2023October 27, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, City Planning, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Ireland, Traditions & Folk Custom, Workers' Struggles1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 5 mins.)

On a wet Tuesday night in the large lobby of Windmill Lane Recording Studios, local community representatives met with representatives of political parties, Dublin City Council and the Gardaí to press for their community’s needs to be met.

The meeting on 24^th October 2023 was convened by the City Quay Committee and its organiser, Patrick (“Paddy”) Bray raised concerns about the unmet needs of the local communities currently and for following generations.

Apart from the City Quay Committee, also represented were representatives of housing areas Markievicz House and Conway House, along with volunteer-managed youth service Talk About Youth.

Also in attendance were representation from political parties Fianna Fáil, Labour and Sinn Féin, all of which have TDs (members of Irish parliament) elected in the area. Dublin City Council was represented as the local municipal authority and Pearse Street as the nearest Garda station.

Presumably the presence of a Garda representative was in relation to discussion around a recent period of violent confrontations between opposing gangs of youth on the Samuel Beckett Bridge (but also Sean O’Casey Bridge) connecting South and North Liffey docklands.

It was striking that nearly all the community representatives were female, while most of the political representatives and each of DCC and the Gardaí were of male gender.

Paddy Bray opened the meeting outlining the local concerns about the area’s youth and the lack of constructive activities for them, the local youth service being underfunded, under-staffed and with no permanent base.

Bray went on to outline a dire absence of any kind of community facility for the local community, while property development went on around them, including four hotels in recent times, with no sites designated for affordable housing or community needs.

*Looking across from the north quay, central background, the 8-storey Clayton Hotel, along with other buildings dwarfing even the four-storey reconstructed* The Ferryman, the last of the original pubs along the South Docks between Tara St. Station and the East Link Bridge. (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Other community representatives also pressed their needs hard and raised issues of applications for building on existing sites without consideration of the community’s needs in housing, parking, child and young person development, mental health or green space.

A number raised concerns about rat infestation in a housing area, emanating from a derelict site, followed by some discussion about where responsibility lay to address the problem as the site is in private ownership (though there was a suggestion of an enforceable abatement order).

The responses of the political party representatives and the Dublin City Council Area 2 officer were generally supportive, though a disagreement did emerge as to whether the City Council were doing enough to control the rat infestation.

Evoking a medieval or early 1900s scenario, a community representative reported that a man visited their housing area on a voluntary basis to kill rats and at a recent visit, had killed seven. Photos of live and dead rats on a phone were handed around (to shudders from some of the men).

The meeting concluded with an agreement to form a campaigning committee for the resources and sites needed, for the political representatives to support its aims and for the Area 2 DCC Manager to report back to his own management.

Paddy Bray asked all present to spread the word among their contacts to enlist further support.

THE COMMUNITY: LOSS, NEEDS AND HISTORY

The name of the building in which the meeting was held is famous in Irish recording events though most probably associate it in particular with the previous recording studio on the site and the rock group U2.

A plan for a six-storey block on the site was defeated by local protests in 2008 but the original studios were demolished with the exception of the U2 fans’ graffiti wall, which was later sold and proceeds donated to a charity fundraising for awareness of men’s health and treatment needs.

The new building is owned by the formerly investment trust company, now Hibernia property development company which, despite the name, as is now common in Ireland, is owned by a foreign corporation.¹

Property speculators plan to demolish the City Arts Centre, a resource for the community but derelict and empty for two decades on Moss Street on the South docks, in order to build a 24-storey office block.

*City Arts Centre building, derelict for years, property speculator high-rise plan appealed by many including Dublin City Council to An Bord Pleanála, now speculator taking DCC to court.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Unusually perhaps, the demolition application is being opposed by Dublin City Council² which has appealed it to an Bord Pleanála³ and the speculator has taken the case to court.

As mentioned in the meeting, an existing facility for the community, the Markievicz swimming pool, despite 1,600 signatures to save it, is to close for the construction of a station for the projected underground Metrolink, another infrastructure planned for private or part-private ownership.⁴

As one of the community representatives commented, there is already a train station nearby; not only that but the tracks of that station are several storeys above ground, making an underground connection with Metrolink quite feasible.

A rally to promote saving the swimming pool in 2019 (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

The swimming pool facilities are now to be located at a site 3 km away in Ringsend, a housing district at the end of the docks and partly on the seafront, which has football pitches and green space very close nearby. ⁵

It is indeed late in the day as indicated by the huge property development on the South Quays but the communities are getting organised as can be seen from this meeting, a commemoration of a fatal 1960s housing collapse and protests about local church neglect by the Diocese.⁶

Some may think it is too late or that the speculative property and financial forces ranged against them, with their multiple political and other connections, are too strong. But their community’s needs now and for generations to come are powerful incentives for which to struggle too.

The south and north quays communities, neglected by the authorities and rode over roughshod in the past, with their remnants now under threat, are essentially working and lower-middle class communities which have never been given the resources they earned and deserved.

As in many other parts of Dublin, working class communities were ravaged by the heroin epidemic in the 1980s and regarded in the main by the authorities as a policing problem, with anti-drug campaigners ironically targeted more than drug lords.

In the course of that social crisis, many developments of physical and political nature took place which the working class was not well-placed to resist.

An outing on the old Liffey ferry boat, in regular use when there was no bridge crossing the Liffey eastward and downriver past Butt Bridge (Photo sourced: Dublin Dockers’ Preservation Society)

However, the people of the docklands were an important part of the working class movement in the early 1900s, winning many union battles against the employers until defeated by the latter’s alliance with police, magistrates, churches and media after eight months of struggle 1913-1914.

They rose out of that defeat and rebuilt their fighting organisations, including the first workers’ army in the world (and which recruited women, some of them appointed officers),⁷ fought again in the 1916 Rising and after that in Dockland areas during the War of Independence.

Indeed, during the 1916 Rising it is remarkable that despite British shelling from naval units in the Liffey, they did not attempt to land soldiers on any of the Dublin quays at that time, disembarking British reinforcements into Dun Laoghaire instead and marching 8 miles⁸ in from there.

If the working class of the south Dublin dockland is stirring it may still achieve more than many may expect.

End.

The Travelodge Hotel, corner of Townsend and Moss Street (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

FOOTNOTES

1Purchased by Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian company, in 2022

2 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/city-arts-centre-would-cost-e90000-to-get-to-satisfactory-condition-court-told-1488548.html

3Many applications agreed by DCC Planning Department have also been appealed to An Bord Pleanála and that organisation has been immersed in controversy over criminality in management and low staff morale leading to a high backlog of appeals awaiting judgements.

4 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2023/06/05/up-to-300m-spent-on-various-dublin-metro-projects-to-date/ for the Metrolink but also notably in the LUAS tram network and Transport for Ireland buses in Dublin with regard to public transport infrastructure but also to be seen in toll roads and in electronic communications infrastructures.

5One could form the suspicion that the ultimate plan is to move south docks working class facilities to Ringsend and Irish Town, with the communities themselves to follow or to fade away, leaving the whole area free for property speculators.

6The diocese protest was not reported on in Rebel Breeze but the housing collapse commemoration, at which the lack of local affordable housing was raised, was.

7The Irish Citizen Army, founded after calls by both James Connolly and Jim Larkin.

814 kilometres.

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill_Lane_Studios

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernia_Real_Estate_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroLink_(Dublin)

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2023/06/05/up-to-300m-spent-on-various-dublin-metro-projects-to-date/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroLink_(Dublin)

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/04/03/relocation-of-markievicz-pool-for-metrolink-to-cost-up-to-48m/

COLLAPSE OF BUILDING KILLING TWO GIRLS COMMEMORATED

THOUSANDS IN BARCELONA IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE AND DENOUNCING EU AND USA

On October 24, 2023October 25, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Catalonia, Catalunya, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Euskal Herria, Internationalist Solidarity, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, USA, ZionismLeave a comment

BARCELONA10/21/2023 21:18 UPDATED: 10/22/2023 11:17ONA FALCÓ@ONA_FALCO

(Reading time: 3 mins. Translated by D.Breatnach)

Thousands of people gathered this Saturday in Barcelona to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to condemn the bombings and attacks by the State of Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The demonstration was sponsored by the Palestinian Community of Catalonia and the Prou Complicitat amb Israel (Enough of Complicity with Israel – trans.) coalition and supported by more than 100 entities and social movements in Catalonia.

The event began at six in the afternoon at the crossroads between Avinguda Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia of the Catalan capital.

*Demonstration in support of Palestine in Barcelona, October 21, 2023. — Lorena Sopêna / EUROPA PRESS*

All organisations signed the manifesto “Let’s stop the genocide in Palestine. Stop the arms trade with Israel” with a clear desire to condemn the historical repression of the Palestinian people and calling on governments “to stop being complicit in this televised massacre.”

The participating entities declare what is being done is “not in our name.”

The call brought together a cross-section in attendance, from young people to seniors and entire families.

Shouting “Long live the Palestinian struggle” or “Israel murders, Europe sponsors”, the protesters proceeded to Plaça de Catalunya, waving Palestinian flags and posters with slogans in Catalan, Spanish, English and Arabic and images of the crimes committed in Gaza by the Israeli army.

Explanatory leaflets were also distributed directing use of correct terminology when talking about Palestine, encouraging protesters to change expressions such as “conflict between Israel and Palestine” to “Israeli colonisation of Palestine” or “IDF (Israel Defense Forces)” by “FOI (Israel Occupation Forces).

In this same vein, banners could be read expressing “if you are the occupying force, you are not defending yourself”, “Collective punishment is a war crime. Stop the genocide in Palestine” or “Apartheid was wrong in South Africa and is wrong in Palestine.”

EUROPE AND USA DENOUNCED

Given the latest visits by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, the protesters also accused the European and American institutions of “complicity” and ” sponsorship of genocide.”

The manifesto signed by the more than 100 entities stated: “The EU continues to consider Israel, despite being an extremely racist and far-right government, as a strategic partner, and the United States provides $1 billion in military aid.”

The Spanish Government is not free from reproach either, since, as the manifesto describes, “they have authorised the export of weapons to Israel worth 137 million euros since 2000.”

Faced with the recent Israeli forces’ attacks on Gaza, protesters demanded that the Spanish Government and the EU force Israel to declare an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of humanitarian corridors.

They also called for the suspension of the arms trade and the sanctioning of Israel to end the “occupation, colonialism and apartheid of the Palestinian people” and to “allow the return of the eight million Palestinian refugees.”

(Photo sourced: *Prou Complicitat amb Israel*)

Finally, they also demanded that the Generalitat of Catalonia “stop considering Israel as a strategic region in the Agency for Business Competitiveness” and have required the breaking of the friendship association between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.

The current Mayor, Jaume Collboni, reinstated that relationship after taking office, overturning its suspension by the former mayor Ada Colau.

COMMENT by D.Breatnach

Despite the overall majority for Catalan independence in Catalonia, there are sharp divisions within the movement on how to proceed and respond to Spanish State repression and these differences find expression also in attitudes to the Israeli State.

In the Basque Country too there have been demonstrations in towns across the southern country (i.e in the Spanish state) by different organisations which have been very clear in their condemnation of the current Israeli bombing but also of the entire Zionist project and Israel’s history.

On the other hand, the only demonstration organised by the “officialistas” of EH Bildu and social democratic allies, which took place in Donosti/ San Sebastian on 20^th September confined itself to calls for “peace”, “negotiation” and equal treatment by the Israeli state.

*Publicity poster for Palestine solidarity and defending the right to resistance demonstration scheduled for Saturday 28th in Bilbao.*

This sharp divergence in what might be called “the Palestinian solidarity movement” has been observed in other parts of Europe too, including Ireland as some elements seek not to stray too far from their state’s consensus while others are determined to break from it.

End.

SOURCE

https://www.publico.es/sociedad/barcelona-congrega-manifestacion-mas-multitudinaria-defensa-palestina-inicio-bombardeos-israelies.html?

CROWD PACKS FOURTH DUBLIN PALESTINE SOLIDARITY RALLY DESPITE CONSTANT RAIN

On October 20, 2023October 21, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Imperialism, Ireland, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, Song, Song in Struggle, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 5 mins.)

The roar of Palestinian solidarity slogans outside the Irish Parliament, Leinster House on Wednesday night must surely have reached the ears of the elected representatives as they debated a motion that “Israel has a right to defend itself”.

The motion is widely seen as part of a narrative, under the cover of self-defence, endorsing the Israeli State in its decades of racism, apartheid, genocide and war crimes and takes place during the Zionist state’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza.

*Solidarity colours in the rain* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The rally, the third since last Saturday week¹ organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, attracted many hundreds willing to stand in persistent rain, listen to contributions from speakers and chant slogans, these led by voices in both Irish and Middle Eastern accents.

In fact, a strong trend increasing over recent years has been the presence of Palestinian voices at such rallies, both in speaking and in leading slogan chants, which the rally organisers have not hesitated to facilitate.

*View late in the rally* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

SLOGANS, SONG AND POEM

On Wednesday evening, some slogans were in Arabic also, such as I think “Tahya Filistina!” (long live Palestine) but sadly not the equivalent in Irish, such as “An Phalaistín abú!” or an alternative, for example: “Saoirse don Phalaistín!” However, one placard in Irish was present (see photos).

The slogans in English ran the usual range of call and answer: “Free, free – Palestine! From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free! One, two, three, four – occupation no more; five, six, seven, eight – Israel is a terrorist state! (I prefer “Israel is a fascist state!” myself).

In our thousands, in our millions – we are ALL Palestinians! Boycott — Israel! Irish Government – shame on you!

In 2009, as yet another Gaza bombardment came to an end, I had composed a poem I called The New Wailing Wall. On Wednesday I got it printed in a photocopying shop on my way to the event, by which time it was raining fairly heavily but I was glad to be permitted to read it out at the rally.²

A Palestinian woman sang in Arabic a “song of sadness”, i.e a lament the rhythm of which a lot of people got into, clapping in time. In Irish singing we often don’t like this, as it tends to drown out the words and the musical detail but it seemed to work well enough there.

Later she told me that she very rarely sings but felt she had to give voice to her feelings – and I know some of what she means.

*Seen from behind, Palestinian woman singing a lament in Arabic at the rall*y (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

MOTION DEBATED

Inside the home of the Irish Parliament,“the Dáil”³ a motion of support for the Zionist state proposed by the Government had run into problems even before Israel’s bombing of the hospital in Gaza, after which they intensified; the Government insists it will not condemn Israel to any degree.

It is likely that a majority-agreed motion amendment will pass but however will neither assert the right of the Palestinians to their land nor to resistance, nor to the return of refugees, much less condemn Zionism; it should be a cause of shame to all parties and individuals who support it.⁴

*Section of the rally crowed after an hour (some had gone home) in front of the gates of Leinster House* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

“Expel the Israeli Ambassador!”

In the street outside Leinster House, there were many calls for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador (Out! Out! Out!)

Truly that seems the most effective solidarity move of which we are capable currently.⁵ Sadly there seems no chance that the Government would even consider doing so.

Even among the Opposition, Sinn Féin these days looks unlikely to support such a move. This is so even though the party’s President, Mary Lou called for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador in April last year⁶ and a decade ago, Gerry Adams, for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.⁷

*Some solidarity demonstrators as far back as Molesworth Street while most are in front of Leinster House* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Rally supporters refuse to be squashed up on the pavements and spill over into the road. Once again the Gardaí have failed to close a road to avoid accidents and Dublin Bus has failed to instruct drivers to take alternate routes; the roof of a trapped bus may be seen in the far background. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Colombia threatened to expel⁸ the Israeli Ambassador but the leaderships of the EU and the UK are securely tied to the war-chariot of the USA and there’s never any doubt about what the US wants, which is total support for its safe⁹ Middle Eastern foothold – Israel.

Colombia told the ambassador to behave himself or leave, after the Zionist publicly criticised Colombia’s President comparing the Israeli state’s discourse about and treatment of the Palestinians to that of the Nazis towards the Jews¹⁰ (but Israel is Colombia’s main weapons supplier).

*A sentiment increasingly finding favour* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

In the immediate future, the Zionist authorities have said they intend to invade Gaza to clear out “Hamas”, in which they will of course include all Palestinian armed resistance. Of course, solidarity demonstrations will continue or even intensify.

If Israel invades, it is difficult to imagine that the Palestinian guerrilla resistance movement, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP¹¹, will allow that without putting up a fierce struggle.

Israel has the tanks and planes but fighting on the ground in ruined urban landscapes, when every pile of rubble may hide a tunnel, a bomb or a rocket-launcher, is a different game.The 5-months-long Battle of Stalingrad comes to mind and an Al Jazeera contributor came to the same conclusion.¹²

Also, other elements such a Hizbollah may open up new fronts, in particular in the Golan Heights and Lebannon, as the PFLP has urged. Imperialism and complicit Arab regimes are extremely worried about a flame reaching their combustible possessions in the region.

Massive solidarity demonstrations marched through Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan and even the collaborator military regime in Egypt was obliged to open the Rafah crossing gates for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza (with which the Zionists and the US had to reluctantly agree).

Huge solidarity and protest demonstrations have also taken place in Athens, London and other European cities, while the French government banned any such demonstrations. Texas in the USA also saw a huge demonstration and 500 Israeli protesters were arrested demonstrating in Israel.

However the regimes have weathered such storms before and may do so this time again.

Possibly the West Bank will rise up too, although Al Fatah still has a lot of influence there, despite its discrediting by corruption, nepotism and signing the Oslo Accords and with its leadership deeply compromised as a result.¹³

The Palestinian Authority goons (there are 80,000 of them) fired on demonstrations demanding action in solidarity with Gaza, and in Jenin killed a 12-year-old girl and seriously wounded a first-year university student. ¹⁴

The military command of Al Fatah told collaborator Abbas to step down¹⁵ but their objective is still the discredited and impossible two-state “solution”.

*The 2-State idea was bad in 1993 but …*

*… even worse in 2019* (Source image: *Carnegie Council*)

This “solution”, which the US and the rest of the Western states support, proposed to give the Palestinians less than 40% of their territory, the worst and least-watered, chopped into sections with narrow corridors through the Israeli lands and always under the guns of Israel.¹⁶

A Palestinian state would have neither true environmental, population, political nor civil control. Never a good choice instead of a secular state of Palestine for all, even this colonial option is clearly unworkable, sabotaged by the Zionists themselves with their settlements dotted all over it.

It is shameful to even propose it as any kind of solution.¹⁷

In the longer term, Israel’s consolidation of partnerships with a number of Arab states may have been harmed by the Zionists’ savagery and racist discourse towards the Palestinians but how deeply is difficult to predict.

Whether the Palestinian resistance and particularly Hamas is strengthened or weakened in the eyes of the Palestinian mass likewise remains to be seen.

The mostly imperialist western states of Europe and America show no sign of weakening their allegiance to the world imperialist leader, the USA and therefore, once they get over their weak criticisms of Israel’s genocide, will continue to support the Zionist state into the future.

Like many other problems on this Earth, workable solutions depend on changing some fundamental features in the world order.

end.

A historical reference to the Balfour Declaration of the Imperial Conference of British Empire leaders in 1926 giving European Jews rights to the British Mandate territory of Palestine, where approximately 10% of the population were Middle Eastern Jews at the time, the rest being Palestinian Muslims and Christians. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The rally, though thinning, is still ongoing behind photographer after perhaps two hours. Gardaí have FINALLY closed Kildare Street and a Dublin Bus has managed to turn around and exit. This has been the pattern in a number of Palestine solidarity rallies so far, when the Gardaí must have known the attendance would be large and the street should be closed for safety and traveler convenience sake. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1Another, last Monday week, had been organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement (effectively the People Before Profit political party).

2 https://rebelbreeze.com/2015/03/03/poem-the-new-wailing-wall/

3That is its name but there are those who refuse to call it that, saying that only an all-Ireland parliament deserves that title, such as the one founded during the War of Independence 1919-1921.

4 https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2023/10/18/government-and-opposition-parties-fail-to-agree-wording-of-dail-motion-on-gaza/

5An on-line petition recently launched calls for the Zionist Ambassador’s expulsion: https://www.change.org/p/expel-the-zionist-ambassador-from-ireland?

6 https://vote.sinnfein.ie/mary-lou-mcdonald-td-reiterates-call-for-expulsion-of-russian-ambassador/

7 https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30636814.html

8It was reported that Colombia HAD expelled him and that was repeated at the rally but according to reports from there reaching now, he was only threatened with expulsion if he didn’t shut up.

9Probably the only state in the Middle East, because of its colonialist nature, that is safe from either national liberation uprising or Muslim fundamentalist revolution.

10This is a parallel so obvious that it occurs to a great many people across the globe but it is one that the Israeli authorities rejects and which it condemns as “anti-semitic” with the backing of many different authorities in the West.

11Peoples’ Front for the Liberation of Palestine

12 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/analysis-will-gaza-be-israels-stalingrad

13One of the initiatives of the waves of “Peace (sic) Processes” around the world in the 1990s and early 2000s.

14 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/palestinian-authority-cracks-down-on-protests-over-israel-gaza-attacks

15Ibid.

16 https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/ethics-online/the-failure-of-the-two-state-solution-hope-for-palestinian-youth

17And the history of the Zionist colonisers shows that even with that, they would be forever pushing further, grabbing more land, killing more Palestinians in flare-ups (think the history of the European colonisation of the indigenous Americans in what is now the USA).

SOURCES

https://www.change.org/p/expel-the-zionist-ambassador-from-ireland?

https://vote.sinnfein.ie/mary-lou-mcdonald-td-reiterates-call-for-expulsion-of-russian-ambassador/

Gerry Adams’ call for expulsion of Israeli Ambassador in 2014: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30636814.html

Motion discussions: https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2023/10/18/government-and-opposition-parties-fail-to-agree-wording-of-dail-motion-on-gaza/

Possible changes in the West Bank polity: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/palestinian-authority-cracks-down-on-protests-over-israel-gaza-attacks

Two-state ‘solution’: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/ethics-online/the-failure-of-the-two-state-solution-hope-for-palestinian-youth

SECOND PALESTINE SOLIDARITY RALLY IN THREE DAYS IN DUBLIN

On October 13, 2023October 15, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

Dublin city centre saw the second rally in one week in solidarity with Palestine on Wednesday evening. Unlike Monday’s outside Leinster House, this one was on the central pedestrian reservation on Dublin’s main O’Connell Street.

Thursday’s was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign whereas Monday’s, outside the home of the Irish State’s parliament, had been organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement (more or less really the People Before Profit party).¹

After Monday’s rally, a substantial number had spontaneously marched to the Israeli Embassy where an Anti-Imperialist Action supporter had painted their door in red to symbolise blood before Gardaí knocked him to the ground and kept him lying handcuffed before arresting him.

The crowd had objected to this treatment whereupon the Garda attacked and arrested more demonstrators. The AIA supporter was later charged with “criminal damage” which is ironic considering the criminal and murderous damage by Zionist bombs and missiles on Gaza.

A rather blurry view of section of the rally from the west side. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

BOMBING GAZA

For the sixth consecutive day Israeli air strikes are pounding the Gaza Strip, Israel on Thursday boasting it has dropped 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes on Gaza during the period, according to Palestinian sources killing more than 1,400 people and destroying huge amounts of housing.

At least 140 of those Palestinians killed are children.

*There’s nowhere safe in Gaza* (Photo cred: *Edel Hana/ AP*)

This is the fifth siege and bombing of Gaza by Israel in the last 15years, each time destroying what the Palestinians rebuild or patch and repair, such as their sewage treatment plant. Palestinian casualties overall during the period have been 6,407 Palestinians as against 308 Israelis.²

One siege lasted 51 days! Factories and apartment blocks, flower and vegetable production glasshouses and sewage treatment plants have all been destroyed and the coastal waters are polluted, while the Israeli Navy attacks fishing boats that dare go further out to sea.

Gaza was already a severely-deprived area occupied by 2.2 millions with 59% below the poverty level, 46% unemployment but youth unemployment at 63%. Since Hamas won the elections the Israeli state permits no-one to leave or enter Gaza except by special arrangement.

One of the most advanced military states in the world is attacking a people that has no navy, no airforce, no anti-aircraft defences and no standing army. The Zionists say they will soon send in a ground attack also, tanks grinding over the rubble to kill and maim more Palestinians.

*Imagine you went into Sousi Mosque to pray for your family and neighbours to be kept safe, or just because the Israelis wouldn’t bomb it, would they? This is what’s left of it now.* (Photo cred: *Mahmoud Hams/ AFP*)

Meanwhile the Zionist state is permitting no water, electricity, fuel, food, medicine, building materials or equipment to enter Gaza through the gate they control and, shamefully, the Egyptian regime in step with the Zionists is doing the same at the other gate, which the Arab state controls.

War crimes? We hear a lot about them in the war in Ukraine, right? The Israeli state is committing them daily now and has been doing so yearly, often monthly since 1948. But the USA backs Israel and so the western states do so too, supporting the war criminals and complicit in their crimes.

https://www.euronews.com/video/2023/10/12/watch-aftermath-of-strikes-in-gaza-as-missiles-continue-to-fall

WEDNESDAY’S RALLY IN O’CONNELL STREET

The IPSC rally was advertised for 5.30pm but people had begun to gather a half hour earlier, with more continuing to arrive until after 6pm. From physical appearance it seemed that people from the Middle East, presumably Palestinian, at least equalled those Irish present.

Rally supporters very tightly packed and before Gardaí move patrol cars in keeping them hemmed in (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

*Gardaí beginning to move patrol cars in to keep rally packed in the central reservation (Palestine supporters also visible to left of photo, i.e on eastern pavement.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

*Gardaí place patrol car to keep the Palestine supporters (or this particular section?) off the road.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The chanting of solidarity slogans was almost continuous, with short breaks for speakers, most of whom were introduced as Palestinians. These were the usual chants but often led in non-Irish as well as native accents: From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free!

Also: In our hundreds, in our millions – we are all Palestinians! One, two, three, four – occupation no more! Five, six, seven, eight – Israel is a terrorist state! But there were also new ones from a section: Long live the Resistance! And: Only one solution – intifada revolution!

That was taken up by many whereas Saoirse don Phailistín! And: You’ve got tanks, we’ve got hang-gliders – glory to the freedom fighters! were chanted by a small section. Four Palestinians were briefly heard trying without success to get the Alah’ akbar!³ chant going.

From Irish backgrounds, Senator Frances Black, Richard Boyd Barret TD, Chris Andrews TD and Cnlr. Daithí Doolan spoke. Senator Black sponsored the Occupied Territories Bill⁴ which was approved by all sides of the Oireachtas but held back by the Government from becoming law.

Richard Boyd Barret of PBP spoke with passion as he usually does and was applauded. Some of his observations, though more liberal than socialist, unequivocally however put the blame on the Israeli state and castigated also the western states’ support of the Zionists.

Many of the Palestinian speakers were very complimentary to the Irish people present at the rally but also to the Irish population overall for their generally supportive attitude towards the Palestinians and their struggle.

Andrews and Doolan are both prominent members of the Sinn Féin party and, as a result of their President’s recent condemnation of Hamas (a change in position for the party), came in for some heckling.

They may be genuinely supportive of the Palestinian resistance as individuals but if they tolerate their party’s leader lining up with the Zionists and imperialists in condemnation of the resistance of the oppressed, they must accept the criticism thrown at them.

THEY SAID

The leaders of Sinn Féin and of the DUP both separately and recently claimed that the pacification negotiations in Ireland can be used to assist in resolving the conflict in Palestine.⁵

Really? It was precisely following a similar road that led to the corruption and fall from position of Palestinian leadership of Al Fatah and Yasser Arafat, eruption of the Second Intifada and the generally secular-voting Palestinians electing Muslim fundamentalist Hamas in 2007.

On Thursday the Prime Minister of the Irish State said that Israel was inflicting collective punishment on Gaza by cutting off water and electricity but no mention of the bombing, which he seemed to endorse.

Collective punishment is a war crime in international law so what is Varadkar saying the Irish Government will do? Demand action by the EU and UN? Expel the Israeli Ambassador? Demand sanctions against Israel? No – request a humanitarian corridor for food and medicine.

*Photo taken from west side, with LUAS tram rails showing and northward bus stopped at traffic lights.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

At the rally there was generally little denunciation of the Irish Government.

From Palestinians possibly because they felt they were guests in the country but one would have expected much harder criticism by the native speakers of the Government’s condemnation of the Palestinian resistance.

*View of section from western side* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

INTO THE STREET, ON TO THE BRIDGE

Over a thousand Palestine supporters were mostly crammed into a short section of the central pedestrian reservation on O’Connell Street, boxed in by police vehicles and the northward and southward traffic lanes on one side and the LUAS tram line on the other.

*Rally participants have taken the initiative to relieve the crush in the central section by moving on to the road* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

There was also an overspill on to the western and eastern pavements but at an initiative from within the crowd, demonstrators spilled from the east pavement and the central reservation on to the southward traffic lane, bringing traffic to a halt there.

After some time, one of the IPSC’s leaders approached the demonstrators in the road and asked them to allow the trapped cars and buses to continue southward, with which request the demonstrators complied – but the police had made this a dangerous exercise.

With the rally supporters now in the road, southbound traffic is unable to go forward and also unable to turn back. Senior IPSC activist (in green T-shirt) may be contemplating how he get the traffic through for awhile. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

A Garda patrol car was parked in the road next to the central reservation, obliging buses moving southward to manoeuvre around it, bringing them very close to the thickly-crowded eastern pavement. Some shouts of “Move the cop car!” were ignored by the Gardaí.

When the trapped vehicles worked their way past the rally, the supporters returned to the road, remaining there until the conclusion of the rally. Clearly the road should have been closed earlier and traffic diverted but the authorities prefer to have people complain about protesters.

With the road temporarily cleared willingly by Palestine supporters, the trapped traffic can move forward. But the placing of the Garda patrol car obliges the driver to swing over to their left bringing the bus dangerously close to the crowded eastern pavement, instead of staying in the middle of the street. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Subsequently that evening, by which time the rally had been continuing for getting near to three hours, many of the attendance followed a banner of the Anti-Imperialist Action group to occupy O’Connell Bridge for a period and light flares there, after which they dispersed.

This is the southbound lane, so no traffic will approaching the rally on the road from this side. So why all those Gardaí there? Perhaps intending to prevent an impromptu southward march, perhaps to the Israeli Embassy (as occurred on Monday). In any case, they did not managed a march to O’Connell Bridge to occupy that traffic junction for a while. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Rallies in solidarity with Palestine have been held and new ones are being organised across Ireland, including Belfast, Cork, Derry, Galway, Limerick, Naas, Sligo and the IPSC has called another one for this Saturday for Dublin 1pm in O’Connell Street.

The people in Ireland will continue to express their solidarity with Palestine but the main political parties and Government …!

End.

*“The root of violence is oppression”.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1See https://rebelbreeze.com/2023/10/10/collusion-delusion-in-repression-of-the-palestinians/

2 https://thewire.in/world/chart-6407-palestinians-and-308-israelis-killed-in-violence-in-last-15-years

3“God is great” in Arabic.

4 The bill would ban any goods or services produced, even partially, in the territories occupied by Israel after 1967 and ruled ‘illegal’ by the UN —including the Golan Heights.

5Presumably she means the process that her party embraced which entailed colluding with a colonial occupying power, a sectarian armed colonial gendarmerie and aspiring to manage a neo-colonial, neo-liberal state.

SOURCES

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/israel-says-6000-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-as-war-with-hamas-nears-a-week

https://thewire.in/world/chart-6407-palestinians-and-308-israelis-killed-in-violence-in-last-15-years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupied_Territories_Bill

https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-war-dup-leader-urges-uk-to-use-experience-of-northern-ireland-to-secure-dialogue-in-middle-east-12983184

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2023/10/10/news/mary_lou_mcdonald_ireland_must_lead_a_decisive_international_intervention_for_peace_and_palestinian_freedom-3686850/

Who Bombed the Syrian Soldiers’ Graduation Ceremony?

On October 11, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Mass Media Criticism, Middle East, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

News & Views No.10 Diarmuid Breatnach (Reading time: 5 mins.)

A three-day period of national mourning began Friday in Syria over the drone bombing of a passing-out ceremony of Syrian soldiers completing their Army training, the death toll so far being 89 including women and children.

The news of events in Palestine over the weekend has overshadowed the Syrian news but nevertheless the events in Syria were very serious.

Thursday’s strike on the Homs Military Academy killed 89 people, among graduating soldiers and proud family members, also wounding as many as 277, according to the health ministry — and the death toll could rise as some of the wounded are in a critical condition.

*Women relatives of soldiers in the passing-out parade comfort one another in their grief.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Who did it? and Why? are two questions that spring to mind. The mass media which is usually quick to speculate – or to find some ‘expert’ to speculate for them – are not doing so. In fact, they are not even asking the questions.

But that doesn’t stop the media from slagging off the Syrian state leadership and dropping in a kick at the Russians at the same time.

So Associated Press agency starts off “putting it all into context”, mar dhea, as we can see from a number of quotations scattered throughout the report:

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack as Syria endures its 13th year of conflict that has killed half a million people.

Syria’s crisis started with peaceful protests against Mr Assad’s government in March 2011 but quickly morphed into a full-blown civil war after the government’s brutal crackdown on the protesters. You see, undemocratic regime!

In 2015, when Russia provided key military backing to Syria, as well as Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. You see, Russia and Iran involved!

Russia and Turkey, who support rival sides in the country’s conflict, reached a ceasefire in March 2020, ending a three-month Russian-backed government offensive against insurgents. Russia again and … Turkey? The NATO state in the Middle East?

So how did the Syrian State respond to the bombing? Well, what you expect from a brutal regime that is supported by nasty Russia and Iran?

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that Russian warplanes carried out several airstrikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and nearby villages on Friday.

Overnight, Syrian troops pounded the last major rebel-held region in parts of Idlib and Aleppo provinces, killing at least three people and wounding more than 15 in the town of Daret Azeh, according to the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence, also known as White Helmets.

The area is a stronghold of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uyghur militant group, many of whose fighters are Chinese Muslims.

Hey, wait a minute! Quoting “Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor” (i.e pro-NATO)? White Helmets, an anti-Syrian regime organisation? And wasn’t NATO involved in a war in Syria?

Yes, it was: US imperialism with its allies was deeply involved there.

A new U.S. brigade combat team arrives in front of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle at a base in Syria’s Hasakah province in 2019. (Photo cred: Jane Arraf/NPR)

Also in fact there were “peaceful protests against Mr Assad’s government in March 2011” and they were suppressed by the State but, without justifying that suppression, let’s look at the Middle East context of the time.

IRAQ, then LIBYA, then SYRIA – OOPS!

The USA’s plan to encircle Russia from the Middle East¹ involved knocking out the regimes that were not allied to it. First step, invading Iraq in 2003 with lies about “weapons of mass destruction” and the hysteria following the Twin Towers bombing.²

Then supporting the coalition of forces to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya in 2011 and at the same time, those against Assad in Syria. After their overthrow, Iran would have been next, to bring the USA nearly right up to Russia’s border and getting rid of the Iranian regime at the same time.

This is also why the West encouraged a rising against the status quo in Georgia (which Russia and Georgian allies suppressed) and supports the Armenian resistance in Azerbaijan.

*Map showing some of the states in Eastern Europe and the Middle East bordering or on the approach to Russia; Libya would be further south on the map* (Image sourced: *Internet*).

Having jihadist³ muslim fundamentalists in a western imperialist-supported coalition against Assad in Syria would have been fine for the USA,⁴ as it was in Iraq but inconveniently, ISIS was an important part of of the islamic fundamentalist spectrum and it had declared war on the USA.

So the USA had to go to war against ISIS but also to support the SDF,the Kurdish-led coalition in Rojava, who were fighting ISIS. Russia came to the support of Assad against the US-supported NATO proxies and muslim jihadists other than ISIS.

Turkey, although a NATO member, got involved mostly because of its hostility to the Kurdish left-nationalist movement in Turkey⁵ and that movement’s close connections to the Syrian Kurds which, though working with NATO, were dumped by Trump to considerable US internal disagreement.

The presence of Russia’s forces prevented the USA from invading Syria or enforcing a no-fly zone over it and prevented also Turkey from advancing beyond the section of Syria which it has taken over and where its proxies – particularly among jihadists — are in operation.

And also helped to hugely reduce the threat of ISIS.⁶

That is the backdrop to the western media’s reporting, pretending that the whole problem in Syria is entirely the regime’s own fault and that Russia and Hizbollah are making it all worse. And not mentioning the USA or NATO even once.

BUT WHO DID IT?

The western media, through emphasising the areas attacked by Syrian military, seems to be suggesting one of the jihadist groups were responsible. But would they have had the capacity for such an attack from 60 kms away? And if they did, were they supplied from outside?

The regime’s military statement accusing jihadists “backed by known international forces” of responsibility hints strongly at a western powers’ axis member and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organisations, wherever they exist”.

If the West did plan this attack or supply jihadists who carried it out, it is difficult to see what tactically or strategically they could hope to gain from it.

Funeral march of Syrian Army carrying coffins of victims of the drone attack. (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

JUSTIFIABLE IN WAR?

The western media, although it included coverage of the grief of relatives of the slain, for the most part did not discuss the question of whether the attack was justified in war, though it would and does do so continually with regard to the war in Ukraine.

*Civilian woman injured in the drone attack.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

In war it is of course justifiable to bomb the enemy’s soldiers, even those still in training or just successfully completing it. But efforts should be made to avoid causing civilian casualties and hitting a passing-out ceremony is bound to cause many, including women and children.

In that regard the bombing cannot be regarded as a legitimate act of war and therefore must be considered a war crime – but again, that seems a term reserved in the West with which to accuse the Russians in the Ukraine war alone.

End.

FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/funerals-held-in-syria-for-dozens-of-victims-of-attack-on-military-ceremony-1535741.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/5/syrian-military-college-hit-in-drone-attack

Very biased account but at least mentions US military involvement and that the war in Syria is in many ways a proxy war:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_involvement_in_the_Syrian_civil_war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War

1As with NATO in Eastern Europe for years but although coups and insurrections were also encouraged there, seduction of regimes was more prevalent.

2It is well to remember that the Iraqi regime had been an ally of US imperialism and had waged a war against the new Iranian regime from 1980 to 1988 after the overthrow of Western ally the Shah of Iran (1979). At the time the West didn’t care about the Hussein regime’s gassing of Kurds in 1988 (I personally knew people who were trying without success to get it into the news then) but 23 years later it was suddenly “news” when the USA decided that the Hussein regime would have to go.

3Fundamentalist Muslims who claim they are engaged in a ‘Jihad’, i.e a ‘holy war’.

4The USA deliberately encouraged and helped build up jihadists in Afghanistan to overthrow the socialist regime 1978-1992) and its Soviet supporters, in the course of which it helped create Al Qaeda.

5In particular the PKK.

6‘On 22 November 2015, Syria′s president Bashar Assad said that within two months of its air strikes, Russia had achieved more than the US-led coalition had achieved in its fight against ISIL in a year. Two days later, the US said: “Russia right now is a coalition of two, Iran and Russia, supporting Assad. Given Russia’s military capabilities and given the influence they have on the Assad regime, them cooperating would be enormously helpful in bringing about a resolution of the civil war in Syria, and allow us all to refocus our attention on ISIL. But I think it’s important to remember that you’ve got a global coalition organized. Russia is the outlier.’”

At the end of December 2015, senior US officials privately admitted that Russia had achieved its central goal of stabilising the Assad government and, with the costs and casualties relatively low, was in a position to sustain the operation at this level for years to come. (Wikipedia)

COLLUSION & DELUSION IN REPRESSION OF THE PALESTINIANS

On October 10, 2023October 10, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Guerrilla Action, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Middle East, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Song, Song in Struggle, US Imperialism3 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

As smoke rose over the homes and shops of Gaza, an unseasonal October brought sunshine on to the streets of Dublin city centre and the crowds with Palestinian flags outside Leinster House, the home of the parliament of the Irish State.

As the sound of explosions, wailing of ambulances and of people rang around the streets of Gaza, the call-and-answer of solidarity rang out in Kildare Street: In our hundreds, in our millions – We are all Palestinians! From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free!

The Dublin rally was one of a number of Palestine solidarity events organised in Ireland after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas’ military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades on Saturday and the Zionist State’s bombardment of civilian structures and people in Gaza.

*Small section of the rally* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The Zionist State, which also controls Palestine’s water supply to Gaza, as well as exit from and entry to the enclave, has cut off water and electrical power as well as barred entry to everything including food, medicine and heating gas.

The Dublin rally was called at very short notice by the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM), a broad front organisation formed by the People Before Profit party around 2003 to oppose the imperialist war against Iraq waged by the Coalition of states led by the USA.¹

*Section of the solidarity rally earlier* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

A branch of the Student’s Union of Ireland also supported the rally, which had a high percentage of Middle Eastern people present, presumably mostly Palestinians. The flags in evidence were mostly national Palestinian, some of the PFLP,² a couple of Starry Ploughs and one Tricolour.³

Speakers from the Palestinian community, IAWM and PBP condemned the decades of attacks by the Israeli state on the Palestinians in general and on those in the Gaza enclave in particular, going back to the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians⁴ as the Zionist state was founded in 1948.

*Starry Plough flag can be seen centre distance next to some PLPF flags* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Richard Boyd-Barret TD (PBP) spoke as did also Ibrahim Halawa from Dublin, who was a prisoner of the Egyptian regime for four years without trial. Halawa said that awareness-raising and education served the ignorant but that action is required from those who know the real situation.

Some of the orators spoke about the right to resistance of the Palestinians, some about being against killing and war (but blaming the Zionist state for causing it), some about the plight of the Palestinian civilians, particularly in Gaza and one referred to the thousands of political prisoners.

*Woman carries home-made giant placard spray-painted “Victory to the Palestinians!”* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

MIND THE LANGUAGE!

A number of speakers referred to the “International Community” and when one listens to them in context it becomes clear that this imagined “community” is one of capitalism and imperialism.

It is not the community of workers, much less the community of people struggling for freedom. In Ireland, the overwhelming majority of people have over decades seen through the Zionist propaganda and switched from being pro-Israeli State to being pro-Palestinian.

We should take more care with the words we use lest we reinforce capitalist-imperialist dominance in the world of concepts in addition to their dominance over the physical world. Another trap is the term “illegal” and Boyd-Barret used it in reference to Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine.

*Banner seen at the rally* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Who makes the international laws by which something is ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’? It is of course the imperialists who do so on the international scale while the capitalists define legality within their states; by their standards the actions of Israeli Zionism are lawful but of Palestinians, illegal.

All the speeches and all the slogans chanted were in English, as were the words on banners. I participated in some Irish conversation near where I was standing but saw only one placard in Irish. The fact that this is normal is part of the problem in this neo-colonial state.

*A lone placard in the Irish language seeks “Freedom for Gaza”* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, from an Irish speaking-family from Connemara and himself an Irish speaker, also spoke in English as he introduced the song he was about to sing, in the same language as the lyrics of Patrick Galvin’s Where Is Our James Connolly?

Eoghan is a PBP supporter and a fine singer, particularly in sean-nós⁵ style and has an amazing range. It was good to hear references to James Connolly at such a rally, something that all too rarely happens, nor is the flag of his Irish Citizen’s Army often seen at internationalist events either.⁶

CONDEMNATION IN COLLUSION, CONFUSION AND ILLUSION

The imperialist states that united in condemnation of the attack by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, were joined by leaders of neo-colonial states such as the Irish one. Naturally also by parties competing to lead the neo-colonial Executive, such as Sinn Féin.

Media reports noted Mary Lou Mac Donald’s condemnation of Hamas as a change in Sinn Féin policy⁷. Indeed it is such a change but is generally in line also with the party’s trajectory of presenting itself as a safe pair of hands for management of the neo-colonial state.

*Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald and Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil and currently Tánaiste.* (Images sourced: *Internet*)

Mícheál Martin, Tánaiste (Vice-Premier), who earlier had condemned Hamas, stated that the Government’s position is to support the “two state solution”, more correctly “the two-state illusion” and this, if not already SF’s position on Palestine will no doubt soon be so.

This is the position of all the imperialist and capitalist states, also of social-democratic and liberal groups. It is worth taking a minute to look at this “solution” which in the first place was totally undesirable and which since conceived has been undermined by the Zionists themselves by their colonial expansion.

If it could even be implemented now it would leave the Palestinians with in reality a colonial-type Bantustan-status client of the Israeli Zionist state⁸, owning less than 40% of their land area and most of their good land and water taken by Zionist settlers.

In addition, their territory would be fragmented, linked by “corridors” through areas of Israeli dominance. In any case, as of 2021, in a poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research most Palestinians were against the two-state solution.⁹

Since this is not in the least a practicable solution, why does Mícheál Martin and Joe Biden, among many others¹⁰ keep saying it’s their preferred solution?

Biden, because it allows US imperialism to pretend that it supports some kind of solution other than total Zionist appropriation and expansion. Mr. Martin? For the same reason or just because his Gombeen class follows the world imperialism leader’s lead.

The only real solution, i.e the only one both just and capable of bringing peace, is the one that we hardly ever see or hear even mentioned: a secular republic with equal citizenship for all, return of refugees and reparations to the dispossessed Palestinians.

The Zionists will not accept the loss of their Zionist empire; US imperialism (and other imperialisms) won’t accept the loss of their only safe strategic foothold in the Middle East – free from the dangers of either Islamic fundamentalist or national liberationist revolution.

US imperialism, now sending an aircraft carrier against the Palestinian people who have neither air force nor navy, is the main financial and political prop supporting the Zionist state. But whatever they thought, I heard no speaker in Dublin call for the necessary defeat of US imperialism.

end.

*Scene earlier of the rally as people keep arriving* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1The IAWM seems to have no permanent existence but can be revived in order to organise events such as today’s from time to time. There is nothing wrong with a party creating a broad front on a specific issue but when it is a front of the Party rather than a people’s front, it will of course suffer when the party’s activists, limited in number, are organising on other issues and cannot keep the ‘broad front’ going, much less expand it.

2The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular socialist organisation fighting for Palestinian national liberation; it has consistently been the 2nd-largest of the groups comprising the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

3The Starry Plough was the flag of the Irish Citizen Army, the first workers’ army in the world and usually signifies socialist Irish republicanism. The Plough painted in gold follows the shape of the Ursa Mayor constellation on a green background, the seven stars in white or silver. Another version appeared in the 1930s, the Ursa Mayor shape in white stars on a light blue background.

Obviously people carry Palestinian flags to show solidarity with Palestine but would it not be useful to carry Irish flags at such an event to demonstrate the solidarity of the Irish movements for national liberation and social progress with the corresponding movements in Palestine?

4That figure represented over half the pre-WWII Arab population (Muslim and Christian) of Palestine.

5Literally “old-style”, a traditional style of singing with ornamentation having a number of regional variations, nearly always unaccompanied and solo-voiced.

6James Connolly was a Scottish-Irish socialist revolutionary, writer, journalist, trade union organiser and historian, one of the Seven Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, Dublin Commandant in the 1916 Rising, one of the 16 executed by British firing squads. He was a co-founder of the Irish Citizen Army to defend the strikers and locked-out workers in 1913 from vicious police attacks, the first workers’ army in the world, which also recruited women, some of whom were officers. The ICA fought alongside other progressive organisations in the Rising.

7And one which cut across the quoted posts of a number of the party’s TDs, including those of Chris Andrews (see Irish Times report in Sources).

8A real irony since Israel is a kind of colony, a state founded by Zionist settlers with imperial support.

9See Wikipedia entry

10Including China – a sad disillusionment for those who somehow still believe it to be a socialist state.

SOURCES

https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-attack-10-09-23/index.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/10/09/sinn-fein-leader-mary-lou-mcdonald-condemns-hamas-attack-on-israel-as-truly-horrific/

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/eu-reverses-announcement-that-it-was-immediately-suspending-palestinian-aid-1537029.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_solution

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

Basque actress Clara Galle hits back at criticism for not wearing a bra under her t-shirt.

On September 29, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Cultural Comment, Current Event Report, Spanish State, WomenLeave a comment

Basque actress Clara Galle, criticised for not wearing a bra under her t-shirt at Basque team Osasuna’s football ground, kicks the ball back to score. “You have learned nothing,” she adds.

From Publico.es 09/26/2023 Translation by D.Breatnach (Reading time: 2 mins.)

The Navarrese actress Clara Galle went to Osasuna’s stadium, El Sadar, last weekend. As a famous fan of theirs, the club decided to honour her with a reception before the match against Sevilla. Luis Sabalza, president of Club Atlético Osasuna, gave her a t-shirt with her name on the back.

*Actress Clara Galle photographed while watching her team play Sevilla at El Sadar, Osasuna’s stadium.*

The visit was eagerly showcased on the official accounts of X and the club’s Instagram. However, as is often the case, the photos in which the outlines of her nipples were visible due to the absence of a bra triggered a multitude of sexist comments.

The actress, far from remaining silent, decided to respond forcefully with a comment on Instagram: “I’ve been going to El Sadar to see my team since I was a little girl … Given the comments I’ve read, I feel that I have to react.

“When I was getting dressed before arriving at the field, it didn’t occur to me that my nipples were to be such a topic of conversation,” she said. “If you notice them, it’s because I have them. I have never seen this kind of hullabaloo when any player from any team takes off his shirt on the field,” she added.

*Osasuna’s president presents actress Clara Galle with a club t-shirt with her name on the back.*

“I have a clear conscience, I’m not doing anything wrong by not wearing a bra.

“It doesn’t bother me that they say that I was wearing the two points that they didn’t win, it bothers me that my breasts are the only topic, among so many more interesting ones in existence, that many choose to talk about”, she declared.

Gale ended with an urgent reminder after the controversy over Luis Rubiales’ kiss of Jenni Hermoso: “It seems that we have learned nothing in recent weeks,” the actress concluded.

COMMENT

Sexism and adolescent behaviour by male adults is oppressive to women and at least tiresome to everyone else. It is an unfortunate feature of many – perhaps all – countries but the Spanish state seems to have a particularly high share of it.

End.