Diarmuid Breatnach
(Reading time main text: 5 mins.)
The roar of Palestinian solidarity slogans outside the Irish Parliament, Leinster House on Wednesday night must surely have reached the ears of the elected representatives as they debated a motion that “Israel has a right to defend itself”.
The motion is widely seen as part of a narrative, under the cover of self-defence, endorsing the Israeli State in its decades of racism, apartheid, genocide and war crimes and takes place during the Zionist state’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza.
The rally, the third since last Saturday week1 organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, attracted many hundreds willing to stand in persistent rain, listen to contributions from speakers and chant slogans, these led by voices in both Irish and Middle Eastern accents.
In fact, a strong trend increasing over recent years has been the presence of Palestinian voices at such rallies, both in speaking and in leading slogan chants, which the rally organisers have not hesitated to facilitate.
SLOGANS, SONG AND POEM
On Wednesday evening, some slogans were in Arabic also, such as I think “Tahya Filistina!” (long live Palestine) but sadly not the equivalent in Irish, such as “An Phalaistín abú!” or an alternative, for example: “Saoirse don Phalaistín!” However, one placard in Irish was present (see photos).
The slogans in English ran the usual range of call and answer: “Free, free – Palestine! From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free! One, two, three, four – occupation no more; five, six, seven, eight – Israel is a terrorist state! (I prefer “Israel is a fascist state!” myself).
In our thousands, in our millions – we are ALL Palestinians! Boycott — Israel! Irish Government – shame on you!
In 2009, as yet another Gaza bombardment came to an end, I had composed a poem I called The New Wailing Wall. On Wednesday I got it printed in a photocopying shop on my way to the event, by which time it was raining fairly heavily but I was glad to be permitted to read it out at the rally.2
A Palestinian woman sang in Arabic a “song of sadness”, i.e a lament the rhythm of which a lot of people got into, clapping in time. In Irish singing we often don’t like this, as it tends to drown out the words and the musical detail but it seemed to work well enough there.
Later she told me that she very rarely sings but felt she had to give voice to her feelings – and I know some of what she means.
MOTION DEBATED
Inside the home of the Irish Parliament,“the Dáil”3 a motion of support for the Zionist state proposed by the Government had run into problems even before Israel’s bombing of the hospital in Gaza, after which they intensified; the Government insists it will not condemn Israel to any degree.
It is likely that a majority-agreed motion amendment will pass but however will neither assert the right of the Palestinians to their land nor to resistance, nor to the return of refugees, much less condemn Zionism; it should be a cause of shame to all parties and individuals who support it.4
“Expel the Israeli Ambassador!”
In the street outside Leinster House, there were many calls for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador (Out! Out! Out!)
Truly that seems the most effective solidarity move of which we are capable currently.5 Sadly there seems no chance that the Government would even consider doing so.
Even among the Opposition, Sinn Féin these days looks unlikely to support such a move. This is so even though the party’s President, Mary Lou called for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador in April last year6 and a decade ago, Gerry Adams, for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.7
Colombia threatened to expel8 the Israeli Ambassador but the leaderships of the EU and the UK are securely tied to the war-chariot of the USA and there’s never any doubt about what the US wants, which is total support for its safe9 Middle Eastern foothold – Israel.
Colombia told the ambassador to behave himself or leave, after the Zionist publicly criticised Colombia’s President comparing the Israeli state’s discourse about and treatment of the Palestinians to that of the Nazis towards the Jews10 (but Israel is Colombia’s main weapons supplier).
OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE
In the immediate future, the Zionist authorities have said they intend to invade Gaza to clear out “Hamas”, in which they will of course include all Palestinian armed resistance. Of course, solidarity demonstrations will continue or even intensify.
If Israel invades, it is difficult to imagine that the Palestinian guerrilla resistance movement, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP11, will allow that without putting up a fierce struggle.
Israel has the tanks and planes but fighting on the ground in ruined urban landscapes, when every pile of rubble may hide a tunnel, a bomb or a rocket-launcher, is a different game.The 5-months-long Battle of Stalingrad comes to mind and an Al Jazeera contributor came to the same conclusion.12
Also, other elements such a Hizbollah may open up new fronts, in particular in the Golan Heights and Lebannon, as the PFLP has urged. Imperialism and complicit Arab regimes are extremely worried about a flame reaching their combustible possessions in the region.
Massive solidarity demonstrations marched through Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan and even the collaborator military regime in Egypt was obliged to open the Rafah crossing gates for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza (with which the Zionists and the US had to reluctantly agree).
Huge solidarity and protest demonstrations have also taken place in Athens, London and other European cities, while the French government banned any such demonstrations. Texas in the USA also saw a huge demonstration and 500 Israeli protesters were arrested demonstrating in Israel.
However the regimes have weathered such storms before and may do so this time again.
Possibly the West Bank will rise up too, although Al Fatah still has a lot of influence there, despite its discrediting by corruption, nepotism and signing the Oslo Accords and with its leadership deeply compromised as a result.13
The Palestinian Authority goons (there are 80,000 of them) fired on demonstrations demanding action in solidarity with Gaza, and in Jenin killed a 12-year-old girl and seriously wounded a first-year university student. 14
The military command of Al Fatah told collaborator Abbas to step down15 but their objective is still the discredited and impossible two-state “solution”.
This “solution”, which the US and the rest of the Western states support, proposed to give the Palestinians less than 40% of their territory, the worst and least-watered, chopped into sections with narrow corridors through the Israeli lands and always under the guns of Israel.16
A Palestinian state would have neither true environmental, population, political nor civil control. Never a good choice instead of a secular state of Palestine for all, even this colonial option is clearly unworkable, sabotaged by the Zionists themselves with their settlements dotted all over it.
It is shameful to even propose it as any kind of solution.17
In the longer term, Israel’s consolidation of partnerships with a number of Arab states may have been harmed by the Zionists’ savagery and racist discourse towards the Palestinians but how deeply is difficult to predict.
Whether the Palestinian resistance and particularly Hamas is strengthened or weakened in the eyes of the Palestinian mass likewise remains to be seen.
The mostly imperialist western states of Europe and America show no sign of weakening their allegiance to the world imperialist leader, the USA and therefore, once they get over their weak criticisms of Israel’s genocide, will continue to support the Zionist state into the future.
Like many other problems on this Earth, workable solutions depend on changing some fundamental features in the world order.
end.
FOOTNOTES
1Another, last Monday week, had been organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement (effectively the People Before Profit political party).
2https://rebelbreeze.com/2015/03/03/poem-the-new-wailing-wall/
3That is its name but there are those who refuse to call it that, saying that only an all-Ireland parliament deserves that title, such as the one founded during the War of Independence 1919-1921.
4https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2023/10/18/government-and-opposition-parties-fail-to-agree-wording-of-dail-motion-on-gaza/
5An on-line petition recently launched calls for the Zionist Ambassador’s expulsion: https://www.change.org/p/expel-the-zionist-ambassador-from-ireland?
6https://vote.sinnfein.ie/mary-lou-mcdonald-td-reiterates-call-for-expulsion-of-russian-ambassador/
7https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30636814.html
8It was reported that Colombia HAD expelled him and that was repeated at the rally but according to reports from there reaching now, he was only threatened with expulsion if he didn’t shut up.
9Probably the only state in the Middle East, because of its colonialist nature, that is safe from either national liberation uprising or Muslim fundamentalist revolution.
10This is a parallel so obvious that it occurs to a great many people across the globe but it is one that the Israeli authorities rejects and which it condemns as “anti-semitic” with the backing of many different authorities in the West.
11Peoples’ Front for the Liberation of Palestine
12https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/analysis-will-gaza-be-israels-stalingrad
13One of the initiatives of the waves of “Peace (sic) Processes” around the world in the 1990s and early 2000s.
14https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/palestinian-authority-cracks-down-on-protests-over-israel-gaza-attacks
15Ibid.
16https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/ethics-online/the-failure-of-the-two-state-solution-hope-for-palestinian-youth
17And the history of the Zionist colonisers shows that even with that, they would be forever pushing further, grabbing more land, killing more Palestinians in flare-ups (think the history of the European colonisation of the indigenous Americans in what is now the USA).
SOURCES
https://www.change.org/p/expel-the-zionist-ambassador-from-ireland?
https://vote.sinnfein.ie/mary-lou-mcdonald-td-reiterates-call-for-expulsion-of-russian-ambassador/
Gerry Adams’ call for expulsion of Israeli Ambassador in 2014: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30636814.html
Motion discussions: https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2023/10/18/government-and-opposition-parties-fail-to-agree-wording-of-dail-motion-on-gaza/
Possible changes in the West Bank polity: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/palestinian-authority-cracks-down-on-protests-over-israel-gaza-attacks
Two-state ‘solution’: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/ethics-online/the-failure-of-the-two-state-solution-hope-for-palestinian-youth
