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 an 11th January interview with state public television channel Télé Liban, Joseph Aoun, President of Lebanon, cited the disarming of the Provisional IRA with regard to the disarming of Hezbollah, which is being demanded by the USA and ‘Israel.’
Significant points from the interview were translated in summary and posted on The Cradle news updates channel on Telegram on the anniversary of Aoun’s election to the Presidency, for which he was constitutionally obliged to resign from his previous position of head of the armed forces.
In a post-colonial polity balanced between sovereignist and anti-imperialist forces on the one hand and pro-Western imperialist elements on the other, Aoun is widely regarded as the West’s man, a verdict justified by a constant thread in his Presidential statements and replies in this interview.
The whole issue of Hezbollah disarming arises mainly from the Zionist state and its main backer, US imperialism and has been much in the news for months.
Samir Geaga, Lebanese politician of the Christian far-Right, back in his Christian Front days during the Lebanon Civil War. (Photo sourced: Internet)
In addition there is an internal Lebanese element with a background of right-wing Christian fascist militias,1 pro-Western imperialism and recruited as proxies by the ‘Israeli’ armed forces when they occupied Lebanon (1982-2000), before the rise of Hezbollah which led the liberation of the country.
Hezbollah’s last armed action was towards end of October 2025 after bombarding the Israeli occupation of northern Palestine in order to divert the Zionist armed forces from the accelerated genocide of Gaza, then in a defence of the IOF’s attack on Southern Lebanon.
Cartoon comment on the constant defeat of Israeli invading forces by Hezbollah in 2024 and 2025. (Cartoon: D.Breatnach)
This was so effective that the Zionist state sued for a truce.
Meanwhile Hezbollah had been weakened by Israeli-programmed exploding pagers and mobile phone devices, along with the assassination of its widely-respected and charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah and agreed to the truce which it has scrupulously observed to the time of writing,
However, the same truce has at the time of writing been violated over 10,000 times by the Zionist armed forces2 in daily drone strike assassinations, bombings of homes and construction sites, troop invasions and checkpoints on Lebanese soil and even kidnappings of citizens.3
All without a word of condemnation from the truce’s guarantors, the USA and France, the former loud in its demands for Hezbollah disarmament along with threats by Trump and Netanyahu.
Joseph Aoun (centre, in civilian suit) upon his inauguration as President of Lebanon, reviewing troops of which had only recently been Commander in Chief. (Photo sourced: Internet)
SUMMARY AOUN’S STATEMENTS WITH COMMENTS
• The Lebanese army has many missions and cannot focus solely on one task. Israeli occupation persists, and attacks continue. Halting attacks and Israeli withdrawal would greatly help accelerate progress.
Yes indeed and people may wonder why a) the Lebanese state forces are not in action repelling that very ‘Israeli’ occupation and attacks and b) why the disarmament of the Resistance is even being contemplated in the current circumstances.
Any assistance to the army facilitates operations. The decision has been made, and implementation speed depends on army leadership and available capabilities.”
It is not clear to which assistance Aoun is referring but otherwise he is admitting that the Lebanese Army is unable to disarm Hezbollah, a Resistance better-armed and more widely supported than the State Army and that serious attempts to do so would result in civil war.
• “The [resistance] weapons were initially deployed for a specific purpose when the army was absent. Now the army exists, and Lebanon’s armed forces are responsible for national security.
Clearly Lebanon’s armed forces are either unwilling or incapable of defending national security, since Aoun admits to the occupation and attacks by a foreign entity, which have been ongoing since the October 2025 ‘truce’.
The weapons no longer serve their role; their continued presence is a burden on their environment and Lebanon. This is not about Resolution 1701—the weapons’ mission is over.
To whom is the continued presence of weapons a burden? Are Lebanese people being attacked by those weapons? No, they are a burden only to the Zionist entity and its imperialist backers who wish to dominate West Asia – and of course to the domestic collaborators.
• “I want to tell others: it is time to be reasonable. Either you are truly part of the state or you are not. The state must take responsibility for protecting its citizens and land. The entire country bears this burden. Logic must prevail over force.”
This is clearly directed at Hezbollah and Amal, political forces represented in the Lebanese Parliament. If the state must take responsibility for protecting its citizens and land, then why not actually do so and demonstrate the alleged lack of necessity for the weapons of the Resistance?
What Aoun really means is that while there is an effective armed resistance, he will not be left in peace by the Zionist State or by US imperialism. And why not? Because they seek to dominate West Asia, which in itself proves the need for an effective armed Resistance.
• “Official positions are taken by official institutions. Lebanon will not be a platform threatening other states’ stability. During summer rocket attacks, the intelligence directorate apprehended the perpetrators quickly and warned Hamas officials they would be expelled if repeated. We will not allow Lebanon to be used for unwanted actions.”
The ‘Summer rocket attacks’ were not from Hezbollah but, if not from provocateurs, were an independent and unprofessional unit – this is well-known.
• “The appointment of Ambassador Simon Karam was made internally in Lebanon, not at the request of the US or any foreign party.”
Hmmm. Even if that were true, it cannot be denied that he is the choice of the USA.
• “Lebanon’s interest requires that decisions be made within the country. No one will fight or stand for us; all parties must cooperate with the state for Lebanon’s benefit.”
If the state wants cooperation for Lebanon’s benefit, surely it should first show itself deserving of that cooperation by standing up for its sovereignty against Zionist invasion, bombings and assassinations, along with Western imperialist threats and bullying?
• “Lebanon has three tools: diplomacy, economy, and military. We have tried war—it ended. Diplomatic paths offer a 50% chance of progress. Political negotiation, not war, resolves conflicts globally—Vietnam, Irish Republican Army, Gaza. Lebanon must pursue diplomatic solutions.”
The war cannot be counted as ‘ended’ with over 10,000 Zionist violations of the ‘truce’, nor did the State ‘try war’, it was entirely Hezbollah resisting the attempted Zionist invasion although as is its wont, the Zionists did bomb civilian homes and infrastructure in Lebanon.
Political negotiation works when the state with which being negotiating either a) would rather not have war or b) is afraid to attack. The first case clearly does not apply to the Zionist State, nor will the second if the resistance is unarmed and all they have to worry about is Lebanon’s Army.
The examples Aoun quotes actually work against his theoretical trajectory: one proves the exact opposite and another two are not at all functioning in the interests of the people nor of secure peace.
The US was forced to negotiate with the Vietnamese liberation forces because of the strength of the latter’s resistance, after nearly 20 years of war.4 Even so, the US dragged out the negotiations until the liberation forces entered Saigon and US helicopters left in a hurry.
The Zionists continue to attack Gaza daily although they have levelled most of it. The Provisional IRA has not won Irish independence or territorial unity, the aims for which it declared it had been fighting and its political arm5 is now serving the administration of the colonial Occupation.
As has been pointed out many times in Rebel Breeze, the imperialists and their stooges learn from and copy one another’s tactics which was demonstrated very clearly in the trajectory of the imperialist pacification processes and how they contaminated a number of resistance movements.
There is never any reason for a national Resistance movement to surrender any of its weapons before the establishment of a strong independent state, well-armed and led by determined and uncorrupted people.
People very different from Youssef Rajj, Foreign Affairs Minister of Lebanon, who in interview with Sky News Arabia stated that as long as Hezbollah holds on to weapons, ‘Israel’ is entitled to attack Lebanon. Apart from its traitorous nature, the statement is not even formally correct.
Youssef Rajji, Foreign Affairs Minister of Lebanon (Photo sourced: Wikipedia)
Officially a state of war still exists between the Lebanese state and ‘Israel’ so of course the Resistance is entitled to hold weapons. More fundamentally, no Government Minister should justify another state attacking their country (as for example Machado does in relation to Venezuela).
National servility, collusion and treason are seen around the world but fortunately so too is resistance.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1Most of these were present in the ‘Lebanese Forces’ who carried out the massacres of the Sabra and Shatilla Palestinian camps of 1,300 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shias—in the city of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990).
4That was with the USA (also Australia). Before that the Vietnamese Resistance fought and defeated the French and Japanese.
5The Sinn Féin party, which is also the party with the second highest representation in the parliament of the Irish State and seeks to form a governing coalition with one of the established neo-colonial parties.
A lesson today: an important truth was demonstrated to a number of us protesting by visible presence and song outside the US Embassy (at the weekly Wednesday afternoon Palestine solidarity event there organised by Jimi Cullen).
We were accosted by a woman who said she was Palestinian, didn’t agree that we were supporting Palestine and insisted we should be pushing for peace.
‘Peace with Zionism?’ someone asked.
‘What is Zionism – do you know?’ she responded.
‘Yes, it’s a belief that Jewish religion gives them the right to occupy someone else’s land and kick the indigenous out.’
‘No, that’s not what it is!’ (but failed to elucidate for us what she claims it is).
Then: ‘That flag is not for freedom for Palestine! Do you know when it was created?’
We were saying ‘Yes’ when she started running down Hamas (which didn’t even exist when the flag was designed and popularised).
She kept saying: ‘I’m a Palestinian!’ (as though that meant she must be right and also that we had no right to contradict her).
Just in case we were confused about her wider ideology, she began to attack Venezuela under ‘communist rule’ (sic).
Most of those attending on 7th January, some time after our encounter with the person under discussion. (Photo source: J.Cullen)
THE LESSON
Her intervention and her manner were annoying but she underlined an important point in political discourse: Nobody’s nationality, ethnicity or residency status gives them guaranteed possession of the truth, nor the right to assert that other opinions must for that reason be wrong.
In every country there is a variety of people, including social classes and a range of opinions on important political and social questions. It is likely that some will have very progressive ideological positions, some less so but still progressive, some conservative and some others, reactionary.
It is more complicated even that that, for some might be progressive on some issues but conservative or reactionary on others – and vice versa.
Of course we fight for the right of Palestinian voices to be seen in print and heard on mass media, as a question of justice and also as the voices of witnesses, those who have experienced the genocide at first hand, or at close second hand through family and community.
We disagreed with silencing Palestinian voices objecting to the Palestinian Ambassador (she was a Palestinian too!) addressing a Belfast meeting organised by Sinn Féin in February ‘24 not because they had to be correct as Palestinians but because their objection was an important one to be heard.
The Ambassador does not represent Palestine but rather the Palestine Authority, which in turn cannot claim to represent the Palestinian people, if for no other reason than that it has not held elections for its Presidency in twenty years.
In fact there are many other reasons including financial corruption, nepotism, repression of any kind of criticism, collusion with the Zionist Occupation, jailing Resistance fighters and actually killing some. Those critics – even had they not been Palestinian – should have been heard instead of being ejected.
It would have been instructive, educational even, to listen to the condemnation by Palestinians of an official who claimed to represent them. But of course, the Sinn Féin party, like nearly all states and all western political parties of any size, supports the Palestinian Authority and its Embassy.1
In this case, it appears from what they were saying and what we can verify, that the Palestinian critics were correct and we know too that the Ambassador is wrong and in fact illegitimate, both in representation status and also in terms of national sovereignty.
But when people claim possession of the truth and immunity from criticism solely on the basis of where they are from or to what ethnic or other group they belong, we need to oppose that undemocratic cloak very resolutely as they use it to close down debate and education.
It’s not only the person claiming a kind of ethnic certainty we must beware of but often also the one who claims to speak for them, who takes a position as their defender and therefore their spokesperson for the truth. Apart from being patronising, such a position is wrong in principle.
And usually opportunist in essence.
This general principle holds true with regard to individuals or groups from any social or ethnic group or community, whether Palestinian, West Asian, Muslim, Six-County, 32-County, homeless, Traveller, working class, disabled, migrant, Irish speaker … etc.
end.
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On Saturday morning, Dubliners checking messages or news on their phones or laptops, or listening to or watching news on TV or radio – or even reading a newspaper, learned that the USA had bombed Venezuela and abducted its President.
Venezuelan national flags on Ha’penny Bridge during Venezuela solidarity portrait, seen here against sky and south Liffey riverside buildings. (Photo cred: Participant)
An emergency protest and solidarity demonstration was called for 3pm in the city centre and under a clear blue sky but in bitter cold, many attended to line the iconic Ha’penny Bridge, which only a week ago had hosted a New Year’s Eve demonstration in solidarity with Palestine.
Among the crowd on the Bridge, a few Venezuelan national flags fluttered against the sky or the riverside buildings, along with a number of Irish Tricolours and one green and gold Starry Plough,1 while placards were attached to the railings along the sides of the Bridge.
The well-known slogan of US military – Out of Shannon! was among the call-and-answer chants of course, along with the easily-imagined Hands off Venezuela! But there were some innovative ones too, such as the Irish-language/ English mix of Deirimís go léir le chéile – Hands off Venezuela!
Starry Plough flag on Ha’penny Bridge during Venezuela solidarity protest, seen here against sky and north Liffey riverside buildings. (Photo cred: Participant)Irish Tricolour flags and probably Cuban national flag on Ha’penny Bridge during Venezuela solidarity protest, seen here against sky and north Liffey riverside buildings. (Photo cred: Participant)
Entirely in Castilian Spanish there was also Viva, viva – La Resistencia! Another was USA – Nothing but thieves! – a specific reference to Trump’s nakedly-declared wish to grab the country’s oilwells.
People from a number of different political parties participated as did a large number of independent activists, constituting an ad-hoc and informal anti-imperialist broad front.
Among the crowd were veteran activists but also too many of the younger ones, grown in political awareness and action in recent years of Palestine solidarity, a deep educational experience, including some facing charges from actions in Dublin or Shannon to be tried in the coming months.
It is to be hoped that their support and solidarity will also be broad.
The Ha’penny Bridge during Venezuela solidarity protest. (Photo cred: Eddie O’Reilly)
The latest news is that the kidnapped President Maduro has been charged in the US on counts including drug trafficking and possession of weapon. As the President of Venezuela and titular head of its armed forces, presumably he does indeed hold weapons.
The very existence of the drug cartel of which Trump and his cabal claim Maduro is head is very doubtful, including even to views leaked from US intelligence departments and of course, not one iota of evidence has been produced to date of the alleged drug trafficking.
Mixture of flags and people on Ha’penny Bridge during Venezuela solidarity portrait, seen here against sky and south Liffey riverside buildings. (Photo cred: Participant)
In the lead-up of months of bullying to this invasion, US forces sank many boats, killing at least 115, including one survivor of a bombing in the water. No evidence of their alleged drug-running has been produced in a single case and even so would not merit death penalty under US law.
Following the US attack on Venezuela, Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López, reportedly from his control bunker, broadcast in military uniform to the nation condemning the imperialist attack and promising resolute resistance.
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace, was videoed in the street wearing helmet and body protection equipment, calling on citizens to place their trust in the political and military leadership and to give no assistance to invading forces.
Vice-President Celcy, now Acting President made her first ever broadcast demanding the release of the Presidential couple, affirming that “there is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro,” and insisting that Venezuela “will never be a colony of any nation.”
Earlier, mainstream media had reported that Celcy had fled to Russia and that Lopez had been killed, such errors perhaps being caused by the ‘fog of war’ but recalling also the part played by the mainstream media in preparing the ground for the US-instigated Chilean coup of 1973.
The US attack and kidnapping was condemned today by Russia and by President Petro of Colombia. Kallas, on behalf of the EU, while condemning Maduro’s rule, voiced some weak platitudes about the EU Charter but voiced no condemnation of this attack upon a sovereign nation.
President of the USA Trump boasted publicly about how viewing the attack and kidnapping operation had been like watching a TV show and proclaiming that the US are now “going to run” Venezuela for a while “and get the oil flowing.”2
Tomorrow, Sunday, the Anti-Imperialist Action organisation has called a protest demonstration to take place at the US Embassy in Ballsbridge, Dublin for 1pm, in defence of sovereignty and in opposition to imperialism.
End.
Note: If you found this article of interest, why not register with Rebel Breeze for free, so that you will be notified by email of subsequent articles. You can de-register any time you wish. Footnotes:
1The design of the flag of the Irish Citizen Army, a workers’ defence militia against police during the Lockout/ Strike of 1913 and that also fought in the 1916 Rising.
Through three events on Saturday, New Year’s Eve in the city centre, Dublin sent a solidarity message to the Palestinian people and also to the solidarity activists on hunger strike in British jails, referencing also those of the Irish Resistance in 1981.
The Millennium Bridge on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: IPSC)
Chronologically first was a protest in the Starbucks café1 in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre obliging the management to close for hours and a balcony walkway banner drop calling for solidarity with the Elbit accused on hunger strike, referencing also the Irish hunger-strikes of 1981.2
I had not read the poster carefully and arrived at the Starbucks at the north end of Grafton Street, where there were a few other confused people also. By the time I made my way up to the southern end of Grafton Street, the protest there was about to leave and I was about to head elsewhere.
Two main banners present at protest outside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: Bas)
The solidarity crowd continued to demonstrate in the shopping centre’s main doorway before marching away, then went into the Zara3 big shop and demonstrated there awhile before heading on to MacDonald’s in Grafton Street where the Gardaí began to let their nasty side show a little.
Palestine solidarity protesters leaving the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, heading down to Zara to protest there (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Then another Starbucks, this one on Dame Street got a Palestine solidarity visit before the demonstrators went on to the iconic pedestrian Ha’penny Bridge, where the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign holds a Palestine solidarity protest every New Year’s Eve.
Closeup of banner-drop inside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, during protest after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: G.O.L)
There the demonstrators thronged the Ha’penny and Millennium Bridges and spilled out along the quays. I was elsewherefor the first time in years as it was a Wednesday and therefore Jimi Cullen’s weekly protest with songs at the US Embassy in Ballsbridge, this one to be his 97th straight.
As usual there were police on guard there and one in uniform approached myself and Jimi as we were talking and asked Jimi how long the event would be, how many attending etc. Then she suggested I removed my bike which was leaning against a bollard.
Conducting the protest inside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve which obliged management to close down for some hours the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: G.O.L)
I told her I was happy with where it was, thank you. Then she said that it might fall on someone (but not, of course, if across the road!), then that someone might steal it, all of which was nonsense of course then said: ‘I am asking you to remove it’ to which I replied ‘And I am declining.’
She was getting quite angry but decided to walk it off. I have attended supporting Jimi’s protest perhaps a score of times and in the early days had a similar approach from a Special Branch4 officer who accused me of causing ‘a security risk’ to the Embassy’s ‘curtilage’ (on a public footpath)!
The Ha’penny Bridge on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: IPSC)
Some police just like to throw their weight around even with regard to things that have nothing to do with the law or causing harm to anyone and over which they have no legal power.
Anyway we unfurled the flags, Jimi had a placard displayed, got out his guitar and we sang through week 97 to frequent waves, clapping, thumbs up, clenched fists, shouts and horn blowing of appreciation and solidarity from passing motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
Section of northern quays/ Boardwalk on New Year’s Eve, during protest after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: IPSC)
Jimi began this weekly protest outside the Israeli Embassy but when they left Ireland he moved up the road to the nearby US Embassy, representative of the world leader in terrorism and biggest supporter, politically, financially and militarily of the world’s leading genocider entity.
Usually there are more supporters present. Jimi has a fine stock of protest and solidarity songs, some of which he composed himself and performs them well. Today we did mostly Irish songs of struggle but also one from the black civil rights struggle and Jimi’s own about Palestine.
Jimi Cullen and myself at Jimi’s weekly event outside the US Embassy on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: J.Cullen)
We had a number of Palestinian flags there but also two Starry Plough flags and there were some Irish Tricolours to be seen on the other protests among the many Palestinian ones. It is from our own struggle that we stand in solidarity with Palestine.
End.
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2Ten Irish Republican prisoners, seven IRA and three INLA died on hunger-strike in a British jail in 1981 in a struggle against criminalisation and for political status
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)
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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.
Leaders of two main neo-colonial Irish political parties are reported vehemently opposing a proposal by Dublin City Council to rename one of the city’s parks. That’s almost enough to make most decent people want to support the proposed name change.
The current name is Herzog Park, situated in Rathgar and the controversy is around a proposed removal of ‘Herzog Park’ and change to ‘Hind Rajab Park’.
Of course, the far-Right ‘patriots’ who are so much against the Irish Government won’t be supporting the name-changing or supporting local democracy – not to mention humanitarianism or international solidarity (except in the case of solidarity with US or British-based fascists).
The Herzog in question was Chaim Herzog, 6th President of the State of ‘Israel’1, raised in Ireland after his father, Yitzhak Halevi Herzog, moved from his birthplace in the Russian Empire to England and then to Dublin, where he was Chief Rabbi of the Jewish faith in Ireland (1921-1936).
Both Herzogs, father and son, were part of the founding of the Israeli State in 1948 of which Yitzham Halevi’s great-grandson, Isaac Herzog is President currently.2
Chaim Herzog (like his father and son) was a Zionist, which is to say he was part of a European movement that believed those of the Jewish faith should have a state of their own for which they were entitled to occupy a land, despite any indigenous people, upon which to establish that state.3
He was also a member of the Haganah, the Zionist murder gang that carried out the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba before going on to form the IOF; and he was later military Governor of the West Bank.
Hind Rajab was a Palestinian girl of five years who was killed by the armed forces of the Zionist State of Israel while fleeing Gaza on 29 January 2024. She appears to have been the last survivor of a gradual killing of her uncle, aunt and four cousins including 15-year old Layal Hamadeh.
The distress call came first from Hind’s cousin Layal, begging for help and explaining that they had been targeted by the Israeli Occupation Forces and that the adults were dead but the call terminated amid screams. Gazan emergency services phoned them and Hind told them Layal was dead.
The sequence suggests that the IOF were monitoring movement in the car or perhaps even the calls, as after they had shelled the other occupants, they shot Layal and finally Hind. Not content with that, they also killed the heroic Palestinian ambulance crew4 who lost their lives in rescue attempt.
Placard held at Monday night’s protest lobby of Dublin City Council (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The Park got its current baptism in 1995 which is hard to excuse. Of course the Zionazis were not as reviled 30 years ago as they are now but the facts of their general racism, apartheid and repression of Palestinians were clear – we were no long the Israelophiles we had been formerly.5
BUT WHO ARE TODAY’S REAL NAZIS?
Foremost unofficial ambassador for Zionism in Ireland Alan Shatter, former Fine Gael’s Minister for Justice & Equality and Minister of Defence from 2011 to 2014, of course entered the fray and, commenting on the proposed name-changing, accused Dublin City Council of nazism.6
Shatter’s statement and his sporadic public interventions in support of the genocidal state would provide good ammunition for anyone campaigning against the principle of free speech. How does the Israeli State he defends itself compare to Nazism, his hurled attack on Dublin City Council?
The Nazis carried out ethnic cleansing and genocide against Jews and Roma and mass murders of Communists, Socialists, Gays and Lesbians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and physically and mentally Disabled people.
The State of ‘Israel’ is carrying out daily ethnic cleansing and genocide against Palestinians.
The Nazis attacked and invaded other countries, starting with those near their State in Germany.
The State of ‘Israel’ has attacked 12 countries, starting with those near its base in Palestine, including its 1956 bombing of Egypt in the French-British war against the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
The Nazis carried out collective punishment against civilians in areas where Nazi forces were attacked.
The IOF for years demolished the family home of anyone who took armed action against them, even after they had killed the alleged individual. Worse, they have collectively punished the whole population of Gaza, allegedly due to the 7th October Resistance operation.7
The State of ‘Israel’ is carrying out collective punishment against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by bombing and shelling, house and infrastructure demolition, also against Palestinians and other people by similar bombings in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.
There are four main differences between the crimes of the Nazis and the State of ‘Israel’:
The Nazi extermination campaign was more ordered and faster, included trains to extermination camps with ovens for disposing of the bodies of the victims.
The Zionazis, after the mass expulsions of 1948, carried out a more gradual process of appropriation and genocide until the last two years in Gaza and they don’t have ovens to burn the corpses of their victims, leaving most of them to rot under bombed-out rubble.
The other huge difference between the two is that eventually the rest of the Western powers united against the Nazis, while today they are all united in actively supporting the Zionist genocide.
And of course, although the Nazis kept their actual genocide secret from the vast majority of the German and Austrian populations, for fear they would not support it, the leaders of ‘Israel’ boast of their actions and intentions and opinion polls show the majority of ‘Israelis’ agree with them.
PURPOSE OF PROPOSED CHANGE OF PARK’S NAME
It is hard to imagine decent people being opposed to dropping the Herzog dedication in the park’s name, as that Zionist’s connection with Ireland, though a historical fact, is not one in which we should take pride.
Banner of an Irish sport association in solidarity with Palestine at Dublin City Hall protest lobby. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
If we wanted to honour a representative of Irish Jewry (rather than of Irish Zionism) there were a number of worthwhile candidates, such as antifascist and anti-Zionist Irish Jews Max8 and Maurice Levitas9 or Irish Republican Jews Estella Solomon (Cumann na mBan) and her brother Bethel.10
More than one proposal has been put forward to replace Herzog’s name on the park, the other being Terence Wheelock’s.11
I support the Wheelock family’s campaign for Gardai to be held accountable for the fatal injury to Terence Wheelock in Garda custody in 2005. I have attended protests and covered some of the campaign in articles on the Rebel Breeze blog and I would support a memorial park in his name.
At 24-hours’ notice a rally in support of the Hind Rajab name change was called for Dublin City Hall at 6pm Monday 1 December 2025. Speaking after a number of elected councillors, Abubakker Abed pointed out that whatever about the replacement, a Zionist should not be honoured here.
View of Monday night’s protest lobby of Dublin City Hall. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Abed is a prominent Gaza journalist for the Electronic Intifada media and recent Palestinian refugee studying in Ireland. A number of Jewish people spoke also, David Landy pointing out that the Jewish community in Ireland is split between supporters of Israel and anti-Zionists.
A speaker from the Bronx, New York, also a Jew, recalled how Chaim Herzog had bragged about the demolition of a row of Palestinian houses in the West Bank, calling them ‘toilets’ and remarked how likening people to dirt or animals reminded him of the Nazis’ portrayal of the Jews.
Banner of an Irish sport association in solidarity with Palestine at Dublin City Hall protest lobby. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
However, in the Hind Rajab naming proposal there is not only the removal of a dedication to a Zionist but also in a sense its replacement by its opposite, the remembrance of a murdered child, with her family victims of Zionism and, in a sense of all Palestinian victims of ongoing genocide.
If you support the proposal for both those purposes, as I do, you may want to sign the petition: https://c.org/kBvN64BhWv.
End.
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2Much in the news at the moment because of the controversial application by Benjamin Netanyahu, for a pardon – without admitting guilt – to charges of corruption and bribery.
10I learned of the Solomon siblings only yesterday, through a post by Dave Gibney on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/dgibney100 A number of others were listed by David Landy, speaking outside City Hall during the rally on Monday night.
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 criminalising 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.
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