The efforts of the Zionist tech company Checkpoint to make inroads into the Irish tech sector1 are being dogged by public protests over its origins and connections to the armed and intelligence forces of the Zionist state.
On 15 October last year the company booked a whole day at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin’s city centre in order to promote itself. The protests in the earlier part of the day’s program were sufficiently fierce to force the abandonment of the evening’s presentation.2
There were complaints about the violent treatment of protesters by Checkpoint’s security team, which demonstrators believed Israeli and one British, from their accents.
Former Irish rugby international Brian O’Driscoll had been engaged to promote the event but the company failed to make touchdown.
Checkpoint company’s HQ in ‘Tel Aviv, Israel’. (Image sourced: Online)
The Your Tech, Their Death organisation has had the Checkpoint company in their sights for some time due to the company’s links with the Zionist armed forces.3 For the Westbury protest they teamed up with Action For Palestine Ireland, a direct action Palestine solidarity organisation.
On 25 August this year both organisations joined in action again, this time however also with Anti-Imperialist Action, a revolutionary socialist Irish Republican organisation. The target was another promotional attempt by Checkpoint at Beckett’s Lock Hotel, in Dublin’s north docklands.
A loud protest outside the building prompted the hotel’s management to close public access to their Reception but they also got their staff that the event was not taking place inside. However, some of the protesters were already inside and in communication with those outside.
In the event, the lies became truth as the organisers cancelled their event.
The Zionist tech company has chosen a macabre but appropriate name for itself. Checkpoints operated by the Zionist army in Palestine are locations of daily humiliation, long delays and threat to Palestinians, exacerbated at times by assault, arrest and even death.
There were very recently nearly a thousand Zionist checkpoints which Palestinians have to negotiate inside the West Bank alone, if they dare. Some are gate barriers, some permanent road checkpoints, some ‘flying checkpoints’, i.e temporary no-warning erections.
A very recent report, as this article was being written, documents the many ways in which these checkpoints fragment Palestine not only geographically but socially too and how they restrict access to friends and family, to land, to work and even to healthcare.4
Zionist checkpoints in the West Bank are now also AI-integrated.
That checkpoints are not merely control-and-repression erections for the Palestinian subject population but an offensive weapon in a war of subjugation is evidenced by their export into South Lebanon and Syria by invading Israeli armed forces.
Zionist tech companies and their intrusive surveillance programs have grown widespread around the world, being adopted not only by commercial companies but also by state service departments with concerns raised far beyond the genocide in Palestine.
At the moment it seems that the penetration of this Zionist company at least is being stopped or checked by Palestinian solidarity resistance. Whether the checks will result in checkmate for Checkpoint remains to be seen.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
SOURCES
1 Its head office is in the USA, according to its website.
3The company claims to be committed to making the world a safer and more secure place, and this commitment applies to our work both on the internet and the physical world alike. We promote a safe, healthy, supportive and diverse work environment, with training and development opportunities for all employees. Except for Palestinians of course, who are actually targetted by Zionist tech while their own access to the Internet is simultaneously monitored by Zionist tech and restricted by Zionist power cuts.
An impromptu demonstration in solidarity with Gavin Bazuno, the Ireland team goalkeeper, attracted many participants on late Sunday afternoon 27 September in Dublin. The call-out had only been posted the previous evening.
Irish language poster calling to stand with Gavin Bazuno and the courage to act according to conscience.
24 year-old goalkeeper Gavin Bazuno declined to play against the team of the genocidal Israel state, against which the Irish team were drawn in the UEFA Nations competition, despite the controversial decision of the team’s management and the Football Association of Ireland to go ahead.
Responding to the overwhelming majority sentiment in Ireland and of the members of the Association, the FAI executive in November had requested UEFA to exclude the Israeli team from the competition, which UEFA executives refused to do.1
Until September, long after FAI members’ fears were realised and in February the Irish team had been drawn to play ‘Israel’, the UEFA board had also refused to exempt Ireland from being drawn against ‘Iosrael’ (which they have the power to do)2 in future games.
Attendance at the Dublin rally drew from a broad pool without any clear political party or indeed solidarity organisation dominance. Placards were not plentiful but some home-made ones could be seen and indeed the banner calling for solidarity with Bazuno was sprayed on white sheets.
A placard appeared showing an IOF sniper, referencing ‘Israeli’ player Said Abu Sarchi taking the ‘sniper position’ after scoring against Austria, for which he was sent off, to his apparent great surprise (after all, it’s normal in ‘Israel’ to actually shoot, not just mime shooting Palestinians).3
In order to comply with Palestinian society’s request for a boycott of ‘Israel’ to include sports competitions, a number of groups have been specifically campaigning against firstly ‘Israel’ being permitted to enter the competition and secondly for the Irish football team to refuse to play them.
The main ones have been League of Ireland fans, Stop the Game and Ireland Sports for Palestine. Over 160 Irish sports people signed a letter asking the Irish team not to play and Jacinta O’Keefe, registered to compete in the Pondevedra Triathlon withdrew due to ‘Israeli’ athlete participation.
The Show Israel the Red Card banner seemed the only printed one present at the rally, whereas a number of sheets had been spray-painted in order to together spell out Stand with Bazuno 4 Gaza.
A home-made placard read: Nice Save, Gavin! The flags flown among the crowd were mostly Palestinian with some Irish Tricolours and one Starry Plough.
Section of the crowd outside the GPO with one of the megaphone speakers, chant leaders etc. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
There was hardly a Garda uniform in evidence, nor was any stewarding organised or required: the main group occupied the GPO side while a smaller group stood on the central pedestrian reservation. A street person danced a bit in the road but generally withdrew as vehicles approached.
The ad-hoc nature of the rally and absence of any organisation’s control was illustrated by the lack of printed placards or banners, by much of the speeches from people with megaphones and in particular by the slogans chanted.
Specific slogans included: Don’t play the Game! We Support Gavin Bazuno! FAI, you can’t hide – You’re supporting genocide! There’s Only One Bazuno!
But there were also other chants relating to Ireland more generally, such as against British Unionists and their attempted Orange Order march on the Garvaghy Road4 and the slogan referring to both occupation of Ireland and of Palestine: Irish people understand: No peace on stolen land!
The more usual slogans of Palestine solidarity were also chanted: Free, Free: Palestine! From the River to the Sea – Palestine will be free! From the Sea to the River – Palestine will live for ever! In our thousands and our millions – We are all Palestinians!
There is only one solution: Intifada revolution! 1, 2, 3, 4 – Occupation no more! 5, 6, 7, 8 – Israel is a terrorist state! Saoirse – Don Phalaistín!
A recording of Martin Leahy’s Don’t Play was amplified with the crowd joining in on the chorus, which repeats the title of the composition.
The air of Don’t Play has been used earlier for many songs and chants, first recorded in 1864 as the air for Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, a song composed by George Frederick Root to give Union troop captives of the Confederacy hope of liberation in the American Civil war.
Not long after its USA composition, the air was used for the God Save Ireland! song by Irish nationalist MP, journalist and poet T.D. Sullivan in honour of the Manchester Martyrs, the three Fenians who were framed, convicted and hanged in front of a baying crowd in Manchester in 1867.
The title is taken from the words shouted by the three as they were sentenced to hang and the song became very popular, particularly in Ireland where, for decades it was the unofficial national anthem until eventually replaced by Amhrán na bhFiann.5
The home-made banner made from sections of spray-painted white cloth, displayed on the pedestrian reservation, seen from the pavement outside the GPO. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Wide fallout followed the decision of the FAI that the Irish team would play the fixtures drawn against ‘Israel’. UEFA scheduled the games to take place in Serbia (without any Irish fans) and Hungary. RTÉ€6 declined to accept advertising or to provide commentary on the games.
In the run up to the game, attempting to project the decision to play in a positive light, the Ireland team manager Heimar Hallgrimsson said that rather than playing with genocide, they were ‘playing against Genocide’.This comment drew a tirade of abuse from the ‘Israeli’ Football Association.7
However at a subsequent press conference, Hallgrimsson withdrew the ‘Genocide’ comment, ascribing his use of it to the popular Irish pressure not to sportswash ‘Israel’ and the demand of ‘Don’t play with genocide.’
According to reports, out of the Irish team of 24, eight voted not to play, at a meeting from which it appears that Bazuno was excluded but the rest voted to play. They were then organised to wear armbands mourning the Palestinians killed and to lower their heads during the Zionist anthem.
On the field, the Irish team captain declined to shake hands with the ‘Israeli’ one. The FAI claimed that they had done well apart from their 3-0 win but many felt that to play at all was to lose something more important.
Many of the Bazuno and declining to play Israel at the rally outside the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin. (Photo by: Participant)
It may well have been a tactical campaign mistake not to include the players from the outset in the call for boycott of the game, giving them time to realise and prepare for the fact that if the FAI and Irish Government failed to call for the boycott, then it would come down to them.
The call not to target the players for action, even in that way, seems to have been mistaken. All those of sound mental state are responsible for their actions or lack of them. More importantly perhaps, young men and women of principle will be required to build the Irish nation that we need.
And nothing could be worse than genocide.
End.
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3https://www.instagram.com/p/DdvXWXBG6Y4/ Even more horrible is that he is of Palestinian Arab background. The discourse that it’s a harmless snooker game stance does not warrant entertaining (unless the apologists can show how snooker shots are taken by players of the game while on their knees).
4A road in the nationalist area of West Belfast upon which the British-loyal Orange Order are demanding to be permitted to march
5Original title, The Soldiers’ Song; but for the State, it is the air of the chorus alone that constitutes the ‘National Anthem’.
6Radio Teilifís Éireann, the national broadcaster for television and radio.
Two famous people addressed a crowd outside Leinster House, home of the Parliament of the Irish State on 25th May. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian scholar, had forged a remarkable friendship.
Section of participants in the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Bassam Aramin, now a Palestinian scholar, had been sentenced to a 7-year term of imprisonment for throwing a grenade at Israeli soldiers when he was 17 and had lost his daughter later to a plastic bullet fired at short distance by an IOF soldier.
Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, had also lost his daughter Smada but to a suicide bomber in 1997. Both men became advocates of peace and dialogue and friends to one another.
Their audience was the weekly Dubs for Palestine gathering outside Leinster House on Wednesdays 12 noon to about 1.00 pm, with speeches, songs and poetry and David Hickey as MC. This week’s was the 113th such weekly gathering and the duo had been invited to speak.
The broad group has of late been concentrating on parting the Gaelic Athletic Association1 from its sponsor and insurance underwriter, the former Nazi and since Zionist-friendly Allianz company, along with now campaigning for the Irish soccer team not to play the ‘Israeli’ team.
Rami Elhanan (L-R) and Basam Araminaddressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Rami Elhanan referenced his descent from Holocaust survivors and outlined the different living standards of the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish communities, commenting on the sickness in Israeli society, that they did not want to know what is being done in their name to the Palestinians.
Basam Aramin’s contribution was against the Occupation and claimed that without that, Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace (it was not clear whether he was referring to the ‘Two State’ proposal2). David Hickey, the MC of the group presented them with an Arum Lily each.3
After their speeches had been applauded, they were asked to comment on the recent Leinster House debate and the Government’s refusal to endorse a boycott of Israel. Rami Elhanan replied that boycotts entrenched opposing sides and that continuing to talk was the answer.
Singer and activist Emma Browne, invited next to the microphone, sang Keep the Little Flame Alive, among the lyrics of which Faye, Dolores, Bernadine, Table grapes and gasoline, Homemade rifles, kitchen knives, Kept the little flame alive riposted the previous speakers.
Soon afterwards, Paul Lynch read a poem of a Palestinian father mourning the killing of his child. Poet and activist Dorothy Collin declared that in order to have peace there must be justice first and that we must support the oppressed in whatever way they choose to resist.
Áine Ruttley reading her poem while addressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Áine Rutley also upheld our duty of solidarity and the right of the Resistance movement to choose its own methods, as did Jimi Cullen who then performed his own song composition The Freedom Fighter about a fighter from Gaza.
As I was called to the microphone, I commented that my views had already been well expressed in song and speech and that one of the forms of resistance is song, of which we had more than probably any other people in the world and sang An Dord Féinne,4 which is banned in Germany.
A little later the event came to an end with another song from Emma Browne, Never Again Is Now and with group chanting for Palestine, against Allianz and against playing the ‘Israeli’ team.
IN CONCLUSION
It is a popular proposition in certain circles that all social conflicts can be resolved by discussion, by understanding our opponents’ view. It is an attractive idea but flies in the face of history and of contemporary reality.
The interests of Occupied and Occupier are opposed and cannot be reconciled through understanding. The Occupier understands that the Occupied wish to be rid of them. The Occupied do understand that the Occupier wishes to continue appropriating their land and resources.
In this kind of situation one must win and the other lose. Far from understanding leading to peaceful resolution, the more the oppressed understand the nature of their oppressor, the more resolutely they are likely to resist and this is surely true of the Palestinians resisting the Zionist settlers.
The false proposition of resolving irreconcilable interests through discussion is usually of liberal or social-democratic origin when applied to anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles and though appearing even-handed, always ends up disempowering the victimised.
The journeys of both these men is extraordinary and interesting but it should not be presented as representative of the Palestinian struggle against Occupation, Theft and Genocide. Each father lost a child but the Palestinian is losing a lot more on top.
Furthermore, a just resolution can only come about through the total defeat of the Zionist forces and the dismantling of their State, so that if we really want that kind of resolution we are called to support the Palestinian side, unequivocally and resolutely.
Of course, in reality there is no question of real peace without justice, for ultimately the oppressed (unless wiped out) will rise in struggle again and again. The proposition of accommodation of opposites by discussion can only undermine or distract the struggle of the oppressed.
We cannot take the story of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, however remarkable, as even a metaphor for a just resolution nor allow ourselves to be seduced from resistance nor our struggle undermined by it.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1The management of the Gaelic games, including hurling and Gaelic football. The GAA has teams in every one of the 32 counties of Ireland, crossing the colonial border and is the biggest community sports association not only in Ireland but also in Europe and perhaps in the world.
2This proposal came out of the Oslo Accords, to give the Palestinians 20% of their land for peace with the Zionist settlers who would own the remaining 80%. Apart from its basic injustice the proposal was never realistic since Zionist settlers continued to construct settlements on additional land. Despite this, supporting that proposal is the formal position of most western imperialist states and the Irish State and of most parliamentary political parties.
3In Ireland these are often viewed as symbolic of the 1916 Easter Rising.
4Also known as Gráinne Mhaol and Óró Sé Do Bheatha ‘Bhaile, an Irish traditional song of some antiquity refashioned into an Irish resistance song by Patrick Pearse, a martyred leader of the 1916 Rising.
Participants in a small picket outside a Dublin court on 13 April were threatened with arrest by Gardaí unless they dispersed.
The picketers were supporting two activists facing charges after being pepper-sprayed by Gardaí on the Dublin docks in October last year.
The event in October had been to symbolically blockade Ireland against imports from the Zionist state due to its genocide of Palestinians. Ireland is the second-largest importer of Israeli goods next to the EU and the largest single-state importer of all, exceeding even the USA.
Some of the Garda vehicles attending the Garda repression of picketers. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Pickets outside the Court of Criminal Justice in Dublin have been a regular feature in recent years, not only in support of Palestine solidarity activists but also anti-NATO protesters, housing activists and Irish Republicans (the latter being brought through the no-Jury Special Criminal Court).
While some attend the actual court case others picket outside with flags, placards and banners. Until the incident being described there has been no recorded trouble from the Gardaí. However on the 13th picketers were approached by at least 15 Gardaí from five Garda vans.
More of the Garda vehicles attending the Garda repression of picketers. (Photo: R.Breeze)
First they went to a lone picketer who was standing with Palestinian flags on the line dividing west from eastbound traffic outside the court. It is not known what words were exchanged between them but they accompanied him to the roadside for some time before detaining him in handcuffs.
The Garda leader then told the picketers immediately outside the court to leave the area and when they asked what law they were accused of breaking refused to reply except to directed them under the Public Order Act to leave or he would arrest them.
Some of the Garda participating in the repression of picketers, some of whom have already crossed to the other side of the road. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Most of the picketers crossed the road to the north-east side but after the Gardaí departed, slowly drifted back. Gardaí returned, their previous leader visibly angered as he once again told them to leave, adding that should he find them in the area, he would arrest without warning.
Once again most picketers crossed the road away from the Court but shortly thereafter the court adjourned, both activists of the Dublin Port incident emerging along with their supporters who had attended inside and shortly thereafter all dispersed in various directions without incident.
The legal advice is that neither the individual picketer in the road nor the others nearer the court were breaking any law and that the Gardaí, under instructions from somewhere, exceeded their powers, including under the Public Order Act.
Gardaí in front of the Court after repression of picketers. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The picketers viewed the Garda actions as an attack in general on civil liberties, the right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate and in particular on the right to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and to protest Irish State collusion in Israeli State genocide.
A couple of separate incidents occurred prior to the Garda action. In one, a seemingly hysterical man appeared before the solidarity picketers, with two others videoing him while he brandished a tabloid newspaper with a headline alleging a sexual offence by a migrant.
He departed quickly shouting racist sentences. Later another in similar vein approached to within a foot of the picketers asking them where they were from, alleging that sexual assaults were committed only by immigrants and twice made an unsuccessful grab for a Palestinian flag.
The two Palestine activists are due back in court on 11th June and the arrested picketer, it is believed, on the 12th. It has been suggested that legal observers trained by the Irish Council for Civil Rights will be in attendance outside, as they were during the Garda attack last October.
end.
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As the northern hemisphere turned eastwards and the majority western calendar turned to a new year, it has been customary for people to wish one another a ‘Happy New Year’, not just for the first day of January but for the twelve months to come.
Although the Celtic New Year will not begin until the first of February, and the new year begins with “teacht an Earraigh … tar éis na Féile Brighde”, I have done likewise but with deep feelings of ambivalence.
Because facing us as 2026 progresses is genocide in some parts of the world, growing fascism in some other parts, tighter squeezes on working people, smaller proxy wars and, almost certainly, a larger war, with desperate migrations of people, if surviving death to find racism and exploitation.
Faced with armed occupation and genocide, armed resistance is justified and arguably necessary, even were it not established as a right within the Geneva Convention. But even unarmed and peaceful resistance is being penalised and repressed, including in the ‘Western democracies.’
Support and solidarity organisations are being outlawed, people expressing legitimate opinions against genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing and armed occupation supported by those ‘democracies’ are being hounded in their jobs and private lives, beaten and arrested by police and even shot dead.
But where there is oppression there is also resistance. The struggles against the racist and genocidal entity, though supported in arms, finance and politically by the Western ‘democracies’ have awoken people in those countries to solidarity action in the face of their governments’ opposition.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
Hugely important lessons have been learned: about the nature of the Zionist state, about the collusion of the ‘democracies’ in colonial occupation and genocide, about ‘the independence of the judiciary’ and the ‘free press’, along with the partiality and ineffectiveness of ‘international law’.
And also about the ineffectiveness of liberal opinion and organisations, even in their heartlands of the ‘democracies’, to achieve meaningful change or even stop the repression. And about how the State knows this and reacts most violently against direct solidarity action.
Organic links have become clear between war in Yemen and Somalia, the spread of Islamist jihadism and imperialism, between prison struggles in Palestine, Britain and Ireland, between the troubles of the world and much of their origins among the colonial and imperial powers.
Yes, where there is repression, there is also resistance and our duty lies in feeding that resistance in all the ways that we can, including being visible in protests at their trials and supporting them in jail. And impeding our ruling class’ attempts to tie us to NATO or other military alliance.
So what I wish for is an increase in the militant resistance of the masses and greater unity in struggle, simultaneously with greater disunity among the imperialist states and ruling classes, bringing us closer to the kind of world we need.
I wish that for us all throughout 2026.
End.
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In the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, we might ask: Is anti-Semitism1 on the rise?
It is hard to be certain, given that politicians and media keep conflating anti-Zionism and anti-Israel feelings with anti-Semitism, mixing acts against one with acts against the other, despite their being two very different things.
People pay respects at Bondi Pavilion to victims of a shooting during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, December 15, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
But would it be surprising if anti-Semitism were indeed on the rise? And if it is, who are the main culprits?
Undoubtedly, the western imperialists who support the Israeli settler colony and repress their own citizens for opposing genocide must contribute to anti-semitism.
Above all however the Israeli State itself and its genocide against the indigenous Palestinian people, while insisting that the Zionist State is the ‘national’ expression of Judaism, that their Zionism is Judaism, must be counted as particularly responsible.
Zionism is a late 19th Century political movement for the creation of a Jewish state, founded by a small group of European Ashkenazi2 Jewish background which received the support at the time of imperialist European capitalists, particularly the British variety (some of them anti-Semites too!).
A branch of Evangelical Christianity, especially in the USA has also become Zionist.3 Leaving aside religious and prophetic belief, this sector provides a strong base of political and financial support, particularly through AIPAC,4 for US imperialist support for the Israeli Zionist state.
Judaism is a religion, often described as ‘of the Book’, which it shares with Christianity and Islam, all of them with origins in West Asia but with Christianity recruiting most of its congregations and states in Europe (now also the whole West, with the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
Later, the main supporters of the Zionist project were the USA. A dedicated foothold in West Asia, secure from socialist revolution among its colonial Zionist settler population and with any nationalist Arab movement suppressed by this garrison, was of course attractive to the imperialists.
The project of conflating Judaism with Israeli Zionism has been underway for well over a century but even in the wake of the Nazi genocide, Zionism did not have the support of the majority of Jews around the world.5 This changed as the 20th Century progressed but appears to be reverting now.6
ANTI-SEMITISM?
As more and more people, particularly youth around the world take to the streets and to educational establishments to denounce the daily genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli State and the collusion of the Western regimes, they face heavy repression of the states.
Beating with truncheons, use of irritant sprays, threats to academic study programs, arrests, strip-searching and serious charges are already occurring in the Irish state. To those must be added banning of organisations under false ‘terrorism’ classification in the UK and Canada.7
Special repressive measures are routinely taken against public displays of Palestinian solidarity in Germany, Austria and France. Journalists have been harassed and arrested, recording equipment confiscated and professionals have their careers threatened, all for opposing the Israeli genocide.8
Some of the resentment felt by the victims of such repression may be misdirected upon people of Jewish background, particularly since the Zionists and the Imperialists work so hard to identify the one with the other.
In addition there is a long anti-Semitic tradition in European Christian society from the Middle Ages9 which was employed and extended by fascist and Nazi movements in the 1930s, combined with a false and perverted nationalism. And currently fascist movements are once again on the rise.
It is instructive to see British fascist and Israeli flags side by side among groups counter-protesting gatherings of Palestinian solidarity in England, or British colonial Loyalists burning Palestinian flags alongside symbols of Irish Republicanism such as the Irish Tricolour.
AN ANTI-SEMITIC ATROCITY
Is is difficult, particularly in the absence so far of information from the perpetrators,10 to view the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia as other than an anti-Semitic atrocity. The victims were attending a Jewish religious festival when fired upon.
First panel shows the shooters, father and son, said to be linked to ISIS; Second panel shows one of the shooters being tackled and disarmed by Syrian-born Australian Ahmed al Ahmed who was later injured and underwent surgery. (Photo sources: Internet)
Had one of the victims, media-characterised as a saintly rabbi but in fact a Zionist supporter of the genocidal Israeli State (who had himself photographed among its soldiers while holding an automatic rifle)11 been an intended target cannot justify the resulting civilian ‘collateral damage’.
In fact, such disregard for other casualties surrounding a targeted individual is a standard feature of Israeli Occupation Forces assassinations and can never be those supported by Palestine internationalist supporters or by any other democratic movement.
Western politicians and media now strive to employ this massacre and its attendant horror to further strengthen Zionism and to further conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, none more so than Netanyahu who claimed that recognition of Palestinian nationhood was a causative factor.12
And in Australia, the massacre is already being used in propaganda against the Palestine solidarity movement: Prime Minister Albanese has stated the intention to outlaw the Palestinian liberation and solidarity slogan: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’.13
The fact remains that the Israeli Zionists themselves are the greatest cause of any rise of anti-Semitism in the World.
End.
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1Although the term ‘Semitic’ describes ethnic cultural groups including Jews and Arabs, the term ‘anti-Semitic’ has been taken largely to mean anti-Jewish, i.e. against people of Jewish religious background, despite its much more recent conflation with anti-Zionism.
2One of the European-based sections of the Jewish community, speaking European languages and the German-based Yiddish, using Hebrew only for religious purposes.
4American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israeli Zionist lobbying organisation providing funding to most US Congress and Senate elected members.
7The direct-action organisation Palestine Action was declared a ‘terrorist organisation’ under UK law on 5 July 2005 and so far over 2,490 people have been arrested for declaring support for the organisation.
9Jews in many Christian European countries were required by law to live in ghettoes or were expelled, such as the expulsion of Jews and Muslims by the Christian Monarchs of the Spanish Kingdoms 1492-1614.
10According to reports they were a father and son, the first killed at the scene and the second hospitalised, just now out of a coma.
As two of the six hunger strikers awaiting trial on actions against the Israeli arms company Elbit approach 50 days fasting and concern for their survival rises, the Irish recall their own history and the 10 Republican deaths on hunger strike in 1981.
The 1981 hunger striker martyrs were jailed active service Volunteers of the Provisional IRA (7) and Irish National Liberation Army (3) demanding their treatment as political prisoners. On May 5th Bobby Sands died on hunger strike, followed in stages by another nine Irish Republicans.
The Palestine Action activists on hunger strike in jail face charges of criminal damage and alleged assault during actions targetting buildings belonging to Elbit Systems in Britain, involving destruction of manufacturing equipment and weapons and daubing with red paint.
Placards representing the hunger-strikers and banners calling for solidarity with them on College Green, facing Trinity College, Dublin Saturday 13 June organised by Communities for Palestine. (Photo:Rebel Breeze)
The actions and charges predate the banning on 5 July of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000. That designation has since been protested across the UK1 with around 2,500 charged with “supporting terrorism” under the same Act (potential penalty 14 years prison or more).
The hunger-strikers have won strong support in Britain with solidarity pickets taking place now daily, along with demonstrations and marches. The protests have seen support from among the Irish diaspora, in particular in London led by the ad-hoc broad grouping of the Irish Brigade.2
Apart from humanitarian considerations, protests have also been directed at the UK’s mass media and its attempt to ignore the hunger-strikes and the solidarity actions.
MPs raised the issue too in the Westminster Parliament. Particularly shocking to many was not so much the video recording of the curt dismissal of Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary question by a UK junior Minister but rather Labour MPs laughing at the put-down of Corbyn.3
On Thursday, more than 800 doctors, nurses, therapists and carers wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy to warn that “without resolution, there is the real and increasingly likely potential that young British citizens will die in prison, having never even been convicted of an offence”.4
In Ireland itself, solidarity protests have taken place in Dublin city centre and at the British Embassy on the city’s outskirts, in addition to in Belfast and Derry within the British colony of the Six Counties. Again and again speakers referenced Irish history and in particular that of 1981.
Placard-holders facing westward traffic at College Green rally near Trinity College, Dublin Saturday 13 June. (Photo: Rebel Breeze)
In Dublin on Saturday 13 June, facing Trinity College, speakers at event organised by Communities for Palestine called for solidarity with the hunger strikers, denounced daily genocide in Palestine, the chairperson also leading the crowd in the now-famous chant led by the Bob Vylan band of “Death to the IDF!5”
Threatened Irish neutrality in the face of the growing threat of war by NATO was also raised by speakers, as was the continued British occupation of part of Ireland, the Irish State’s collusion with the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the US militarisation of Shannon Airport.
View of a section of the organised by Communities for Palestinerally from behind the main bannercalling for solidarity with the hunger-strikers on College Green, facing Trinity College Saturday 13 June. (Photo:Rebel Breeze)
On Wednesday afternoon, in almost incessant rain, a large crowd protesting outside the British Embassy in Dublin heard calls from a variety of speakers (independent Palestine solidarity, Irish Republican, Socialist TD Paul Murphy) to save the hunger-strikers’ lives.
The chairperson of the rally repeatedly referred to the building as “the colonial British Embassy” and led chants in solidarity with the hunger strikers, with Palestinian prisoners of Israel and with Irish Republican prisoners in both administrations.
Section of protest rally at main entrance British Embassy (the actual building is set back from the road) on Wednesday 17 June. (Photo: Rebel Breeze)
Referring to the Labour Party MPs laughing at Jeremy Corbyn’s pleas for the hunger strikers, she reminded participants of their cheering the 1916 execution of Connolly6 and dubbed the police “Lackeys of imperialism” as they tried to prevent demonstrators climbing up along the railings.
The slogans were not only of humanitarian concern but also of solidarity, of rage at the genocide in Palestine, of memory of Irish struggle and continuing British occupation. Among chants of hunger striker solidarity at least two speakers voiced the Republican slogan Tiocfaidh ár lá.7
The hunger-strikers’ demands are release on bail, a fair trial, deproscription of their organisation and closure of Elbit factories. The State would claim fair trials and as their period in detention has far exceeded the normal length even for those refused bail, could easily at least release them on bail.
The problem at issue for the British State is that conceding at all risks undermining their according terrorist status to the organisation (which postdates the arrests), a status already in serious danger.
And they need that to stamp out resistance to their genocide collusion, which they perceive as essential to their imperialist system. In that sense a concession in Britain now would have more impact than would have had to the hunger strikers in the colony in 1980 and 1981.
On the other hand, the State’s repression has brought more and more people into the struggle and has exposed the roles of the media, police, judiciary and the Labour Party. Now, the hunger-strikes are helping to draw Palestine solidarity feeling alongside Irish anti-colonial sentiment.
After some time at protest rally some demonstrators mount the wall to display their flags over the railings towards the British Embassy building, set back from the road on Wednesday 17 June. (Photo: Rebel Breeze)
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1Led by the Defend Our Juries civil rights organisation.
2A broad and growing section of the Palestine solidarity movement in London that has been leading the Kneecap court case music solidarity sessions and the hunger-strikers’ solidarity actions there.
5The famous occasion was in June at this year’s Glastonbury Festival with the irony that it was live-streamed by the BBC in order to avoid featuring the Kneecap band from Ireland and their unequivocal expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. ‘IDF’ is the acronym of the armed forces of the Israeli state, more often named “Israeli Occupation Forces” (IOF) by Palestinian supporters.
6It was actually worse than that: as has been pointed out on occasion in articles in Rebel Breeze, the Labour Party, being in the UK coalition war government, were part of actually agreeing the post-1916 death sentences.
The week before last in Ireland we were led through motions of Palestine solidarity actions once more, motions without practical effect, first by the Irish trade unions, followed the following day by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Seen on the IPSC National march (Photo by: Participant)
On Friday, the unions announced a ‘stand out for Palestine’ day – well, not a day exactly, more like a lunch break. It was not a strike, not even a work stoppage, rather some dedicated employees surrendering their lunch break to stand with Palestinian flags etc in front of their workplaces.
Not even a work stoppage of one day, half-day, or even an hour. The union leaderships, in most cases, organised nothing, leaving it up to their members to get together and to sacrifice their lunch breaks.
More of us went through the motions again on Saturday 29 November. From the Garden of Remembrance, down O’Connell Street, across the river, around by Trinity College, up Dawson Street and into Molesworth Street, facing Leinster House.
Seen on the IPSC National march (Photo by: Participant)
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised this ‘National Demonstration’ as it does roughly every month. It is supposed, presumably, to impress the Government with its numbers and pressure them to end their collusion with the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
It has not done so — nor did it in any month or any year in the life of the IPSC, the longest-active Palestine solidarity organisation in Ireland. Nor have the monthly marches brought about any change in Irish Government collusion since the genocide of Gaza began in October 2023.
That is not the fault of the IPSC. What they are to be blamed for is not recognising that and adjusting appropriately to actions of greater pressure. Or, perhaps they recognised it indeed but nevertheless refused to change towards any effective pressurising methods.
The IPSC was for a long time near the ‘middle of the road’ but it has moved further into that position as the genocidal actions of the Zionist colony became worse and as awareness of Israeli crimes spread and grew in Ireland (which it did in part thanks indeed to the work of the IPSC).
Section of the IPSC National march (Photo by: Participant)
Solidarity work however is not about education in the abstract, raising awareness without using that awareness to bring about change. I am sure the IPSC leadership is aware of that and would wish much change but they do not adapt their actions, rather continuing with the monthly motions.
Probably they do not increase the pressure out of fear of losing their influence with the political class. Which would perhaps be well and good if the political class were delivering on ending collusion with the genocidal state – but they are not, nor is there any indication that they will.
Ireland remains the biggest single importer of Israeli products next to the USA and the biggest in the EU. The Irish Government permits military consignments to fly to Israel through ‘neutral’ Irish airspace and USA aircraft and military personnel to stopover and refuel at Shannon Airport.
Seen on the IPSC National march as passing O’Connell monument (Photo by: Participant)
Occupying the ground near the middle is only a good thing if it can be used to support action for change; it is a hindrance if the act of being there comes to be more important than the end objective: an end to genocide and the Occupation, with freedom and independence for Palestine.
The IPSC could use its mass base to blockade Dublin Port, through which Israeli products come into the country. It could also blockade other major stocking and distribution points.
The IPSC could organise mass days of action against retail and tech outlets handling Israeli exports and mobilise pickets in support of retail workers refusing to handle Israeli products, such as a Tesco worker currently facing disciplinary procedures (i.e punishment) for that very ‘crime’.
The worker in question, employed by Tesco in Newcastle, Co. Down is a member of the IWW and also of USDAW, main union for retail workers in the UK (as in the colony) but while the word is that his union is defending them, it is not seeking to extend and widen the boycott.
Defending a worker’s right not to act against their conscience is an individual and personal issue.1 It is understood that the motivation of this worker is one of solidarity with the Palestinian people and against genocide, which is what the trade unions need to be promoting and mobilising.
Union leaderships become bureaucracies with buildings and paid officials, employing administrative staff, growing more and more cautious and afraid of State action (particularly against their funds), moving further away from the ethos that first led to the unions’ creation.
Organised workers in Italy have shown the potential in dock strikes and mass mobilisations but again it was not the mainstream unions that led the action. Canadian provincial trade union Federations have marked all ‘Israel’ goods and services as ‘hot’2 and not to be handled.
Union membership in Ireland has declined as union leadership collusion with management and government escalated from the 1980s and resistance actions decreased; an increase in militant action is likely to boost recruitment but in any case organising resistance is the supposed role of trade unions.
Questions around solidarity with Palestine bring many other underlying issues to the fore: media partiality, government collusion, imperialist and colonialist influence, effective means of applying pressure, appropriate leadership, resistance to oppression, solidarity with prisoners.
We have been taught lessons of great importance – but at a terrible cost; we owe it to the Palestinians and to ourselves to apply them.
End.
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From The Cradle news updates on Telegram 6 December 2025:
Ontario’s largest labor federation backs ‘hot cargo’ boycott of Israeli goods
The Ontario Federation of Labour has become the fourth provincial labor federation in Canada to adopt a “hot cargo” resolution against Israeli goods and services.
The move designates all trade ties with Israel as products and services workers will refuse to handle due to their connection to exploitation and oppression. The OFL’s decision follows growing momentum across the country as labor groups escalate solidarity actions.
The New Brunswick Federation of Labour first set the precedent in May when it voted to stop handling weapons destined for Israel. Similar resolutions soon followed in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, culminating in Ontario’s endorsement last week.
Together, these federations represent a significant portion of Canada’s organized labor movement.
The OFL’s stance signals a widening labor-led boycott effort, reinforcing a broader push within Canadian unions to apply economic pressure and support calls for accountability over Israel’s war crimes.
1Individual ‘conscience’ can object to many things we consider necessary, for example to give contraception methods information, or about pregnancy termination, to deal politely with migrants, to serving people in the national language, to sending children to integrated education or even to any school, etc. etc.
2‘Blacked’ was a common term for such cases in the recent past, as was ‘tainted’ further back still (á la Larkin and Connolly) – see Appendix.
Recently an Irish Palestine solidarity organisation posted a report that 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed in 23 months, an average higher than one child per hour.1 “Have been killed”? Traffic accidents? Unknown causes?
They were killed by Israel, isn’t that the case? Then why not bloody say so! They were murdered by a genocidal European Zionist settler colony called Israel and itcontinues to murder them, along with their older siblings, parents, extended families and neighbours.
We can find different ways to present the facts of the ongoing genocide in order to try to shock but it does not alter the fundamental and well-known truth that a genocide is being committed before our eyes. Why is this continuing despite what everyone knows? Well, because it can!
Israel will continue to do what it does because it can and the cost of doing it is not high enough, as Ali Abunimah said three months ago.2 Or to turn that a little, the Irish Government will continue doing what it does in collusion with the genocide because the cost of doing so is not high enough.
The EU is the biggest importer of Israeli goods and the Irish state is the highest importer in the EU, also the 2nd single biggest Israeli goods importer in the world. And still the weapons of genocide fly through our skies. The Irish Government continues collusion because the cost to them is low.
Marches and pickets show solidarity towards a beleaguered people suffering genocide and in that they are very important. They also show us our strength in numbers. But they do not cost our government much. Not even enough to really stop the Central Bank assisting genocide.
In England, Palestine Action raised the cost of collusion in genocide by targeting the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in Bristol. Activists were arrested but they kept doing it. This Zionist death company has now closed its targeted Bristol factory.
While this was happening, the British Government, in support of Elbit and others and in collusion with the genocide of Palestinians, not only arrested and charged Palestine Action people but designated the organisation as ‘terrorist’ and any supporters as people supporting ‘terrorism’.
People defied that designation and were arrested for holding a placard saying they were opposed to genocide and supported Palestine Action.
Placards in Westminster August 2025 (Photo credit: Mike Kemp In Pictures/ Getty Images)
Following that action and repression, 1,500 gathered in London on Saturday 6th September 2025 to continue that solidarity and to defeat the attack on civil liberties. By midnight, the last arrest recorded by the police for the day, they had arrested nearly 390 people.
The ‘crime’ of nearly all was to display placards stating “I am opposed to genocide. I support Palestine Action.” The police were unable to arrest them all as it took them 11 hours to arrest the 390. The organisers continued the action in London and other parts of the UK.3
More recently there have been other such acts of public defiance, organised by the Save Our Juries campaigning group and the numbers now arrested on charges of “assisting terrorism” (sic) have reached at least 2,269.
In addition, eighteen arrested Palestine Action activists were jailed, refused bail with some embarking on hunger strike4 of whom two were recently admitted to hospital.
The closure of Elbit Systems, the mass defiance of the terrorist categorisation of Palestine Action and the prison hunger strikes are raising the cost of supporting genocide of Palestinians and criminalisation of Palestine solidarity action, hitting collusion where it hurts, politically and practically.
We in Ireland are the most-pro-Palestine country in Europe … but we are not doing that.
We are not raising the cost high and despite that being clear to us and to our political and solidarity organisations and trade unions, made clear well over a year ago, we are still not doing it. Until we raise the cost high enough to make them stop, our government will continue its collusion.
And until the external cost is raised high enough to make them stop, Israel will continue its ethnic cleansing and genocide. But marchers attempting to blockade Dublin Port in early October were pepper-sprayed without warning and savagely batoned, with some arrested.
Gathering outside Dublin courthouse in solidarity with two Palestine solidarity activists assaulted and charged by Gardaí during early October attempt to blockade Dublin Port (Photo: R. Breeze).
A trio of activists were arrested in May for invading Shannon Airport to protest the ‘neutral’ Irish State’s collusion with US military flights through there4 and last weekend another three young people were arrested for a similar action.
Activists in Ireland are slowly starting to raise the cost of collusion for the State. However, they are not supported by the leadership of the mass movement which, while aware its tactics are not forcing the Government to end its collusion, nevertheless persists solely in repeating them.
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2Director of the Electronic Intifada, speaking on 29 August at a public meeting organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin and hosted by the FÓRSA trade union. The other guest speaker was Abubaker Abed from Gaza, now studying in Ireland after being a journalist for the EI and threatened with assassination by Zionists.
3The Six Counties are at the moment in the UK but the British colonial gendarmerie went very lightly there in dealing with Palestine Action supporters – the rulers do not wish do have Palestine activists as political prisoners while they contain also Irish Republican prisoners.
A wave of “recognitions of the State of Israel” have occurred around much of the world. Though at first glance these appear politically progressive, in fact they are all tied to supporting the colonial alleged “Two States Solution.”
This is quite apart from the fact that not one practical step is being taken by any of those states in order to prevent the ongoing genocide and massive displacement of Palestinians which many of the states are actually aiding.
The fourth image is what is available for the Palestinians in the imperialist two-state plan. (Image sourced: Internet)
Soon all but 30 member states of the UN will have recognised the Palestinian state (yet to exist) and they include western imperialist states such as Australia, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, supported by political parties both in government and opposition,1 all proposing a ‘two-state solution’ (sic).
This proposal involves accepting the ‘right’ of a European colonial settler regime to invade and occupy a land,2 subjugate most of the indigenous people, racially discriminate against them, set up an ethno-state, then carry out ethnic cleansing, genocide and further expansion.
This while simultaneously proposing 20% of the land with least water as a reservation for the indigenous people, under the guns and surveillance of the genocidal Occupier, with its borders, water and electricity supply all under the Occupiers’ control.
Many liberals and social-democrats will support the imperialist ‘solution’ being foisted upon the Palestinian people of the occupation of Gaza by a client regime and the creation of a formal Bantustan3 colony – the “Palestinian State” (sic).
This ‘solution’ was insisted upon at the three-day UN Conference in July, mandated by the UN General Assembly through resolutions ES-10/24 and 79/81 and sponsored by France and Saudi Arabiab, backed by the General Assembly President, Philémon Yang.
Also by Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stating that the “… only just and sustainable path forward is the establishment of two independent, democratic States – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital4…” 5
Firstly, we’d have to say that there is nothing “just” about that path and secondly ask why is that the ‘”only sustainable solution?” Why cannot a democratic state of the entirety of Palestine, as pre-1948, be sustainable? Is it because the Zionists and their imperialist won’t let it be?
Then we’d be entitled to ask whether Guterres and Yang speak for the world or instead for the imperialist states and their clients and allies. In fact, since there can be no peace without justice, a democratic state of Palestine on pre-1948 territory is the only just and sustainable solution.
This scrambling to recognise the ‘Palestinian State’ within a “two-state” framework was also reflected in the recent United Nations vote for a ceasefire, which was tied to the acceptance of the two-state solution, emphasising that it has nothing to do with justice but is all about management.
The imperialist states and their allies, with the particular exception of the US and Israel, are very worried that the legacy of the current genocide will threaten their interests in Western Asia in the near future, including the regimes they depend upon to control the Arab people.
To some extent the western states are also concerned at the exposure of their regimes to their own populations in terms of collusion with genocide, financial implications , suppression of information and, in many cases, repression of democratic rights to protest.
The western states want to save West Asia for imperialism and they think that the USA and current behaviour of Israel are endangering it.
The two-state plan is not at this point supported by the Zionist state and the chief imperialist, the USA, though the plan seeks to impose what they also want: stability within the imperialist system.
Recently another international conference was held to discuss the way to resolve the situation of Western Asia and crisis in Palestine, this conference organised by Qatar following Israel’s bombing of their capital Doha in an assassination attempt against the Hezbollah negotiating team.6
The Iranian representative pointed out at the conclusion that although they supported some of the resolution adopted they could not agree to recognition of a Palestinian state within or adjacent to Israel, since that meant de facto recognition of the right of the genocidal Zionist state to exist.7
Recognition of the Palestinian State as is being done now is also recognition and acceptance of the totally unrepresentative and undemocratic Palestinian Authority and in fact, Palestinian Embassies (such as the one in Dublin) and Consulates are run through the Authority.
Leaflet issued by an Irish solidarity organisation for a picket of the Palestinian Authority Embassy last year – subsequently there was a broad protest held outside. (Image sourced: from my archives)
Although Palestine has been officially occupied by a Zionist colonial settler regime since 1948, it has had an imperialist and Zionist client Palestinian regime since the conclusion of the Oslo process (overseen for US imperialism by Bill Clinton): the Palestine Authority.
What would one expect from such a client regime? Collusion, spying, pacification? Certainly, the PA came to represent all those things. But in addition: bullying and brutal suppression, along with widespread corruption. It was managed by the Fatah leadership through the PLO.8
Whatever we may think of the Fatah leadership, they were by far the majority choice of the Palestinian people in the legislative elections of 1996. But by the time of the next elections in 2006, most of Palestine society had become sick of Fatah and elected Hamas instead.
A 2007 decree by President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas disqualified from election any party that did not recognise the leading role of the Fatah-dominated PLO, thereby disqualifying Hamas which denounced the decree as undemocratic and illegal.
There is a long history of imperialism choosing tame representation for occupied peoples, including British colonialism doing the same thing in Palestine.9
Fatah, unprepared to accept the loss of their power and corruption opportunities, refused to leave their governing positions until they were helped to leave by Hamas in a short, sharp struggle in 2007.10 Whereupon the Zionists blockaded Gaza and imperialists paid their grants instead to the PA.
However Hamas did not force the issue of their election in the West Bank, which continued under the rule, not to say dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority.
The corruption of and repression by the PA is not an opinion of the Palestinian resistance organisations alone but is widely acknowledged by all kinds of western observers, including enemies of the Resistance,11 which is one reason the imperialist are calling for its ‘revamping’.
Meanwhile Abbas, ‘President’ of the PA since its inception in 2003 (and ensuring no elections since) is already laying out how democratic the rule of the PA in Gaza would be. Unlike two decades ensuring no elections in the West Bank, Abbas has been enthusiastically preparing for them in Gaza.
He seems to feel quite confident in the outcome of elections which is perhaps not surprising since he has stated that only those in agreement with the imperialist positions and the traitorous one of the PA will be allowed to stand or field candidates.
Regarding weapons, Abbas’ statements have seemed a bit contradictory. On the one hand he said that the Palestinian State alone should hold weapons while on the other he declared that the Palestine State will be unarmed.
However we can understand this to mean that Abbas and his types will ensure they are armed so as to control the Palestinians but will never use weapons against the Zionist Occupation. Even had we not the record of the Palestinian Authority to draw upon, this is clearly not a deal to support.
But it will be supported – in the first place by most of the imperialists and their client states and perhaps later by the Zionists who fear even a mention of a Palestinian State and also by those ‘friends of the Palestinians’ among the liberals and social democrats because it will bring ‘peace’.
And for them, hopefully eliminate or reduce the influence of Muslims (in particular those who are sworn to resist colonisation and imperialism). And isn’t it after all better than genocide by starvation and bombing? And so on.
We in Ireland know – or should know – that such patch solutions don’t work for the people. Our nation’s similar makeover in 1921 resulted in civil war and, within the colonial statelet, pogroms, greater poverty than anywhere in the UK, civil rights marches and sectarian assassinations.12
And of course, internment and an ultimately unsuccessful national resistance war of three decades. On the other side of the British Border, it meant years of underdevelopment, emigration, clerical domination and imperialist appropriation of natural resources, labour and infrastructures.
The alternative being offered to the Palestinians was summed up by a patriot at his trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to hang:
“If we are to be indicted as criminals, to be shot as murderers, to be imprisoned as convicts, because our offence is that we love our land more than we value our lives, then I do not know what virtue resides in any offer of self-government held out to brave men on such terms.
Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth, a thing no more to be doled out to us, or withheld from us, by another people than the right to life itself, than the right to feel the sun, or smell the flowers, or to love our kind.
It is only from the convict these things are withheld, for crime committed and proven, and my land, that has wronged no man, has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others, my land is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal.
If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.
If there be no right of rebellion against this state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance, then I am sure that it is better for men to fight and die without right than to live in such a state as this.
Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong, where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to gather the fruits of their own labours …
and, even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them then, surely, it is a braver, a saner and truer thing to be a rebel, in act and in deed, against such circumstances as these, than to tamely accept it, as the natural lot of men.”13
It seems to me that throughout history there have been people that it was crucial for the dominant system to defeat but of which their resistance was difficult for the system to overcome.
The culture of these people resisted domination and, like grass flattened by passing footsteps, sprang up again. And again and again.
Perhaps it was the strength of these peoples’ cultures, the way their stories of themselves could not be supplanted by the stories of the invader, of the occupier, or perhaps it was some special quality of their leaders.
Perhaps it was their ability, as leaders and as people, to draw others in under the banner of resistance.
These people fought their occupiers, occasionally winning, often defeated in battle but rising again and again. Where leaders compliant to the Occupation arose, they were overthrown or sidelined, the people again taking the road of resistance. As a people, they rejected ‘peace’ in bribes or chains.
The examples of such people that march and flock into my mind as this thought occurs to me include in ancient times perhaps the Gauls, certainly the Irish and in modern times the Irish again, the Indigenous American Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache – and the Palestinians.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
It is something to see now, all the European imperialists and the imperialist client regimes of the Arab world in a united front to try to pacify the Palestinians, to occupy Gaza and to force the resisting Palestinians under their client manager of the ‘Palestine’ Authority.
It is doubtful that they will succeed and we should hope that they don’t, not only for the sake of the Palestinians and other people of West Asia (the ‘Middle East’) but for our own sakes, fighting the oppression of imperialism and colonialism and the exploitation of our labour by capitalism.
For as observed earlier, the struggle of the Palestinians has destabilised the imperialist system, exposed the fraud of an international humanitarian legal system and in its member states exposed the frauds of capitalist democracy, free press and government representing the will of the people.
Solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at Zionist genocide and imperialist collusion has brought millions of previously uninvolved people into street action which bodes well for the future and ill for the imperialist system. It’s been an education we need to continue.
End.
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Footnotes
1Within the Irish state this is also the position of Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Social Democrats and Labour.
2Commenting on this and in particular on the Australian Prime Minister’s statement on the question, Ali Albunimah of the Electronic Intifada podcast on 25/09/2025 pointed out that the question of ‘right’ was only mentioned once, and that was in reference to Israel’s alleged ‘right to self-defence’, never with regard to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (a right recognised in the UN Charter, unlike the ‘right of a state to self-defence’ which does not exist).
3AI summary: A bantustan was a politically created territory for black Africans in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) during the apartheid era, officially termed “homelands” or “black states”. The policy aimed to segregate and control the black population by granting them limited self-governance within these ethnically defined areas, which were never recognized internationally and were reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. The term “bantustan” was a critical term coined from “Bantu” and the Persian suffix “-stan” (meaning “land”).
4 “… based on pre-1967 lines and in line with international law and UN resolutions.”
8The Palestine Liberation Organisation, in its time comprising the secular liberation organisations of Fatah, PFLP and DFLP. The PA has repressed alternative resistance organisations and suppressed freedom of speech, even to arresting people for criticising it or posting other material on social media. Its forces have killed a civilian critic and a Resistance fighter.
10Mass media sources usually represent this as the “Hamas takeover” which conceals the fact that they were elected to replace the previously-elected Fatah administration, whose officials refused to concede the popular will.
12In case of misinterpretation, innocently or otherwise, let me state that by ‘sectarian assassinations’ I mean those carried out by British colonial proxies, i.e. Loyalist murder gangs.
13This was part of the speech of Roger Casement at his trial; my only change was to substitute the words “my land” for his own: “Ireland.” Casement’s was the 16th execution arising out of the 1916 Rising in Ireland though he received a criminal trial instead of military court and was hanged instead of being shot by firing squad, as were the earlier 15.
