PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS’ DAY IN DUBLIN

On April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, History, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Palestine, peace processes, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

April 17^th is the annual Palestinian political Prisoners’ Day and it was marked in O’Connell Street, the main street of Dublin’s city centre, by an event with speeches, banners and chants organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Palestine national flags fluttered about the crowd being addressed by a number of speakers with occasional toots of solidarity from passing traffic – a common occurrence at Palestine solidarity events in most of Ireland.

*View of eastward of section of the crowd at the event* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

Dáithí Doolan was one of the speakers and though saying some progressive things about solidarity with Palestine and the terrible situation in which the occupiers have them, soon revealed the political poverty and lack of solidarity with resistance of his Sinn Féin party.

Doolan reminded his audience of when there were political prisoners in Ireland, as though this was no longer the case, presumably because the prisoners now are not of his party. Nor did he mention the current attempts to extradite Irish Republicans to British administrations.

The SF speaker went on to extol the South African process, perhaps not caring about the betrayal of the struggle and sacrifice of the masses there, the deepening grip of imperialism on the rich natural resources, the corruption and repression of the ANC regime and the massacre at Marikana.¹

If Doolan thought about it he must have hoped that his audience did not remember that the South African process had a twin, the Palestinian one at Oslo which sabotaged the Palestinian struggle and brought into being the corrupt Palestinian Authority², the Israeli proxy in the West Bank.

Sinn Féin has achieved a somewhat similar position in the Six Counties colony and has been working hard to reach a corresponding role in the Irish state. And why not, when it endorses the “Two State solution” giving the Palestinians 20% of their land under Zionist eyes and guns.

The very least, Doolan said, that the Irish Government could do to help the Palestinians, would be to enact the Occupied Territories Bill but he proposed nothing further, not even the ban on US military flights through Shannon Airport or on Israeli arms flights through Irish airspace.

Darragh Adelaide from the People Before Profit party spoke too about Palestine and solidarity but also about the Palestine refugees that have had to sleep in tents on Irish streets and the attacks on them both by the authorities and by fascists and other racists.

Palestinian prisoner conditions

A woman gave a detailed list of statistics relating to Palestinian political prisoners but also went through the tortures and terrible conditions in which they are kept. She concluded reminding her audience that each prisoner is a human being, a parent, a child, a sibling and not a number.

*View of the crowd southward from behind a speaker* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

In a year and a half, more than 15,800 Palestinians have been arrested, including 500 women, 1200 children, and thousands of detainees who were placed under arbitrary administrative detention. 64 Palestinians have died in prison since October 2024, including a child.³

The prison administration’s special units have carried out violent raids on prisoners’ cells, administering severe beatings, torture, and ill-treatment.⁴

Prisoners have suffered power and water cuts, and all of their belongings—including clothes, electrical appliances, and hygiene items—have been confiscated.⁵

They have been placed under complete isolation, family visits have been completely banned, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has been prevented from visiting them inside prisons.

Additionally, a policy of starvation has been implemented against thousands of prisoners, who are being provided with only two extremely poor-quality and quantity meals a day.⁶

The MC of the event led chants in which he called out Palestinian political prisoners! and the audience responded with Free them all! Similarly with Free the children prisoners — Free them all! and Free the women prisoners! — Free them all!

*Symbolising the Palestinian political prisoners* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

He also referred to the woman arrested outside the Irish Embassy in Berlin for speaking in Irish and, in defiance, led the audience in a chant in Irish expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people: Saoirse don Phalaistín! (Freedom for Palestine!)⁷

What was notable in its total absence from all the speeches was any call to step beyond the marches and similar measures which have been supported by thousands in Ireland over more than 18 months but which have not succeeded in moving the Government even to enforcing its formal neutrality.

This is replicated in most solidarity events across the state, leaving those few who take action to increase greater pressure on the ruling class to face the repression of the Irish State, as with 23 men and women in three different events over a four-day period in Dublin recently.⁸

Political prisoners from the armed resistance

The Joe McDonnell Ballad⁹ would have been most appropriately performed at this event, in particular the chorus line: You dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns … But the IPSC would hardly endorse the singing of that song nor wish to be associated with it in public.

There were two large prisoners’ solidarity banners of the IPSC at this event but it is remarkable how rarely one sees them on the IPSC’s national marches. The problem with the prisoners for liberal organisations is that some of them, at least, have been armed fighters of the Resistance.

This, combined with ignorance perhaps, accounts for the comparatively low numbers at this event. However, it has to be said that known revolutionary organisations were also visibly absent.

*View south-westwards with the iconic GPO (General Post Office) building in the background.* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

Doolan’s party was a problem for liberals when many of the political prisoners here had been armed Irish Republican resistance fighters; it’s still a problem for them today — but also for Doolan and his party now that the current Irish political prisoners are no longer associated with them.

If solidarity does not embrace resistance then it’s charity, not solidarity. And if resistance is to be embraced then it should be so for all its expressions, artistic, cultural, mass mobilisations, strikes, boycotts … and armed. Including solidarity with those who, because of resistance, end up in jails.

Free them all!

End.

NOTES

1Culminating on 16^th August 2012 (while Mandela still lived) the police of the ANC Government carried out a massacre of over 40 striking miners over a period of three days. The massacre was to suppress a strike in a platinum mine of the Canadian Lonmin company, repressing also a breakaway union from theANC-allied National Union of Mineworkers. The massacre is widely believed to have been organised by Cyril Ramaphosa, then a millionaire and vice-President of the ANC Government and recent leader of the NUM, now President of South Africa.

2Which also beats and incarcerates Palestinians resisting the Occupation (exact figures are difficult to obtain) and has murdered some.

3 https://www.addameer.org/news/5549

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

6Ibid.

7This slogan has now become well known in Ireland in voice but also in writing, appearing on flags, banners and placards. It represents a partial success for those of us who have tried to insert a measure of the Irish language into Palestine solidarity, in the belief that it is important for the Irish language to be present in progressive movements.

8See https://rebelbreeze.com/2025/04/06/irish-state-ramps-up-repression/

9By Brian Warfield of the Wolfe Tones band in honour of Volunteer Joe McDonnell of the Provisional IRA who died on hunger strike in 1981; the song also names other hunger strike martyrs of the Provisionals Vols. Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, McCreesh but adds Vol. Patsy O’Hara of the Irish National Liberation Army. In total, seven of the Provisionals and three of INLA died on hunger strike in 1981.

USEFUL LINKS

IPSC:https://www.ipsc.ie

Adameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organisation: https://www.addameer.org/

Adameer Statement on Prisoners’ Day: https://www.addameer.org/news/5549

THOUSANDS MARCH THROUGH DUBLIN CITY CENTRE IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINE

On August 5, 2024August 5, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins. Note: Apologies for delay in publishing this report)

On Saturday 20^th June the Irish people, despite their Governments once again marched in a national demonstration to show the Irish majority solidarity with Palestine and horror at their continuing genocide by the ‘Israeli’ armed forces.

The march had been convened by the long-standing Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign which has branches across Ireland from Cork to Donegal, including in some parts of the British colony (where however the Loyalists are anti-Palestinian).¹

*Mothers Against Genocide group in Dawson St. (around corner from Molesworth St.) evoking individual children murdered by ‘Israel’. (Photo: D.Breatnach)*

*Dublin community group that holds Thursday evening vigils in four areas of North Dublin.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The assassinations of resistance leaders were still to come² but it had been business as usual in Palestine with daily massacres of civilians by the ‘Israeli’ Occupation forces, ongoing starvation, destroyed health service, impending epidemics, prisoners released as ghosts of their former selves.

Also IOF raids and kidnappings³ in the West Bank, at times with Palestinian Authority⁴ collusion in arrests of activists, confiscation or destruction of Resistance weapons …

To all this the Palestinians in general have responded by helping one another trying to survive, digging people out of bombed rubble, documenting atrocities, burying their dead, trying to feed their children and elderly …

And their Resistance in all factions (and none) threw stones, fired bullets, launched anti-tank rockets, mortars, missiles and blew up bombs against Occupation armour and soldiers. And of course, contributed new names to the long list of martyred resistance fighters and commanders.

The ECJ,⁵ to howls of protest from the regime had pronounced its verdict that Israel was indeed, as has long been evident, guilty of practising apartheid against the Palestinians. However not one state ceased giving political or financial cover to the Occupation or supplying it with arms as a result.

*Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

IPSC Police?

Only a few Irish Tricolours were displayed on the march which is visually a political mistake, as I’ve observed earlier and the organisers should state that such are welcome. Not one Starry Plough flag, that of socialist Republicans, could be seen either, despite no doubt there being many such participating.

Irish language placards and banners have been getting rarer, despite a previous welcome upsurge upon which I’ve commented in the past. However there were some to be seen, including a number of Saoirse Don Phalaistín flags and the banner of a Newry group, from Co. Down, under British occupation.

As they filled Molesworth Street towards the IPSC stage and police barriers at the end, facing the Leinster House Irish Parliament building, some marchers already began to leave, having heard speeches before and perhaps heading for their transport back to their earlier points of departure.

The company that erects crowd barriers were ready to install them to cut off a section of Molesworth Street at the intersection of narrow lanes and the Gardaí wanted to cram the crowd in beyond the barriers. IPSC stewards began to usher marchers further into Molesworth street.

One approached a group of marchers telling them what the police wanted to which one of the group replied: “I don’t give a f..k what the police want!” and after the steward’s persistence, accused him of doing the job of the police.

The IPSC stewards have helped the police pack marchers into the stretch of Molesworth Street beyond the intersection (and incidentally leaving any demonstrating in Dawson Street cut off from the main group). (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Aside from the rough language, what were the IPSC stewards doing passing on police orders?

People in the group said that the IPSC stewards have done this before and that furthermore there was no important-through way being cleared,⁶ the exercise serving no real purpose other than getting the public used to being corralled and that at the least the police should do their own job.

The main purpose of stewards is to keep the march moving and safely from traffic. The route has been agreed beforehand by the IPSC with the Gardaí which is not a legal requirement in Ireland. Even in that case the stewards should keep a strict separation in functions from the police.

The IPSC does an important job, publishing information and organising events, especially nationally but back in October delayed in even calling for the Zionist Ambassador’s expulsion. Some other groups also organise events and it appears that the IPSC supports some and not others.

*Young Palestinian women leading the slogans call-out*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Going forward it seems that the solidarity movement, including of course the IPSC, will need to take into account their meagre effect on the Irish Government, not to speak of upon the genocidal state itself and on its supporting states in the West, in particular the USA, Germany, UK …

Such recognition will call for escalation, for direct action, for different kinds of solidarity action … whether some organisations want to participate or not.

*Some trade union banners on the march (though the unions do little to mobilise support, much less take action against ‘Israeli’ products etc.).* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Front of the march turning into College Street. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

1This could be because they see themselves as ‘British’ settlers, while the ‘Israelis’ are European settlers too but is more likely a knee-jerk reaction to the Palestine solidarity exhibited by Irish nationalists (something like “If they’re for them, we must be against them”.

2Assassinations of leaders of Hamas, Hezbolah and senior officers of Islamic Resistance Iraq.

3The IOF and the Zionist State may call them “arrests” or “detentions” but typically they are random or working off a list without warrants or due process. Former prisoners are re-arrested constantly; family of ‘wanted’ individuals are detained in order to pressure the ‘wanted’ to give themselves up. Typically the detained are served ‘administrative detention’ orders, jailing them for months without trial or evidence. Prisoners are underfed, overcrowded, beaten by guards, have dogs set upon them and medically neglected.

4Unelected, undemocratic, corrupt and zionist-colluding body financed by some Western powers and some colluding Arab states.

5 https://palestinecampaign.org/icj-ruling-finds-israel-guilty-of-unlawful-occupation-and-apartheid/

6Furthermore, with no side-streets available in that section beyond the intersection, the police could close that west end of the street should they wish to, ‘kettling’ all the demonstrators between two Garda barriers.

MONSTER DUBLIN MARCH IN PALESTINE SOLIDARITY

On April 23, 2024April 23, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Censorship & Witch-hunting, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Diaspora, Israeli Zionism, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

A huge Palestine solidarity march proceeded from the north Dublin city centre on Saturday 20^th, passing down O’Connell Street, over the Bridge, around by Trinity College and on towards Leinster House, the parliament of the Irish State.

Detained by an earlier activity I hurried to join it, catching up with it near the Larkin Monument. From there I could see sections of the march across the river and another section wending around Trinity College in the distance, its leaders out of sight.

“Over a thousand”, reported our “newspaper of record”, the Irish Times. In other words, less than 2,000. Really?!

The march was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity organisation, the main Irish nationwide Palestine solidarity organisation, sponsored by a multitude of organisations and was supported in marching by many organisations and individuals, the latter being the capacity or most participants.

The usual slogans could be heard as I hurried past marchers, such as “Free, Free – Palestine” and including the one that Suella Braverman tried to ban when she was a Minister in the UK Government: “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free!”

I paused by the Thomas Moore monument waiting to meet up with friends in order to march with them. One group passed calling out that what is occurring in Palestine is “Not a conflict, not a war”. I understand them to mean it is genocide instead but I can’t agree with them.

It IS a conflict, the old one of the European colonial settler against the indigenous people, fought for centuries on all the continents of the world except in Antartica. And the zionist State IS waging a war, a genocidal war against the Palestinian people.

Another group went by with a chant leader calling out a list of categories of victims of the zionist genocide such as medical workers, journalists, ambulance crews, refugees etc, to which the group replied “Not a target”. Perhaps they meant “not a legitimate target” but targets they certainly are.

I was flying the Palestinian flag but also the Starry Plough, flag of the risen Irish working class in 1913 and 1916, the only one I saw on the march and which was how my friends found me. A woman I mistook for a visitor asked to take my photo, to which I agreed.

Near the rear of the march one could hear the usual call-and-response slogans drifting back towards us but people in our section marched silently or chatted with one another. Then a voice called out: “From the river to the sea!” and the reply was instantaneous: “PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!”

Chanting takes energy but also seems to supply it and from then our section joined in with gusto: “In our thousands, in our millions – We are all Palestinians!” “In our millions and our billions – We are all Palestinians!” “In our TRILLIONS and our billions – We are all Palestinians!”

“Netanyahu, what do you say? How many kids have you killed today?” “Joe Biden, what do you say? How many kids have you killed today?” “EU, you can’t hide – You’re supporting genocide!” “Irish Government, you can’t hide – You’re supporting genocide!”

“Saoirse – Don Phalaistín!” was the only slogan¹ in Irish. There was no doubt about what people wanted for the Israeli Ambassador or the zionist Embassy, which was “Out, out, out!”

As we turned from Dawson into Molesworth Street, the rest of the march was packed ahead of us all the way up to the presumed police barriers at Kildare Street, across from the main gate of Leinster House. Here the IPSC stewards were urging us to move in still closer ahead.

What was the reason? Apparently the Gardaí wanted us past the intersections with South Frederick Street and with Molesworth Place. But for what purpose? Those were southward traffic only streets which should have been blocked anyway and Dawson Street was open in both directions.

*Molesworth Street from the Junction with Molesworth Place, already packed and with more arriving, yet we were expected to pack in closer and have barriers moved up against us!* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Then a private company began to erect barriers across the north-eastern section of Molesworth street which looked to me like kettling, a view which seemed born out as the barriers were moved once more further eastward with instructions to keep moving – with which I declined to cooperate.

This whole exercise seemed to me of dubious traffic easement validity and more about getting people used to obeying order and to being kettled by police if required by them. In the Irish state we do not have to gain police permission for a march or approval for its route.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the IPSC leaders informing the police of their march routes for traffic easement. But our rights have to be protected and not easily surrendered, much less for no visible valid reason. It is not good for stewards to automatically comply with police wishes.

I have seen (and resisted) Garda attempts to push demonstrators from the front of the GPO into the pedestrian reservation in the middle of O’Connell Street, while they told people that “It’s what your organisers (IPSC) want.”

The police of a state are not neutral forces for the public good and have drawn and used their batons through the decades against people protesting partition of their nation, imperialist war, water privatisation, growth of fascist and racist attacks, against imperialism and colonialism …

Not to mention torturing and framing people to have them jailed.

CHRISTY MOORE AND REPRESSION

In the distance, we could hear that Ireland’s chief living balladeer, Christy Moore, had got on stage and was speaking, then singing, though I could make out only snatches of the lyrics. Moore gained fame both as a member of Moving Hearts band and Planxty but also as a solo performer.

Moore had been litigated against for his song about the young 48 Stardust Fire victims but was vindicated during the week by a long-delayed second inquest into the deaths.² On the other hand he’s received no apology for the police raid on his H-Block album launch back in 1972.³

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are facing repression throughout the western world, in some places much worse than others. The German State is behaving like Nazis in banning demonstrations and raiding a conference, apparently in twisted expiation of its sins under the Adolf Hitler regime.

This impacted also on an Irish language group in Berlin during the week while they attempted to have a small gathering speaking and singing in Irish in a park in front of the German Parliament. The police told them that only German and English languages were permitted in that area.⁴

The Irish Tricolour has been seen on many London demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians, on its own or flying below the Palestinian flag inscribed with “Saoirse don Phalaistín”. The Tricolour turned up too as university students and staff faced down the New York Police.

*Columbia University, New York, Monday.*

*St. Patrick’s Day, New York, March 2024.*

In Palestine itself new horrors are being revealed with the recovery of bodies in mass graves in the areas of destroyed Gaza hospitals recently occupied by the Israeli military. Their remains testify to their being patients and medical staff in addition to refugees.⁵

A totally new horror are the Israeli killer drones emitting the wailing of a baby or a woman’s cry for help, waiting to gun down would-be rescuers. Palestinians in Gaza have been accustomed to responding to those cries in reality for months and often enough shot or bombed as they did so.⁶

This however is a new depth for the zionist military.

*Under danger of Israeli bombardment, digging bodies out of a mass grave at the destroyed Nasser Hospital site April 2024.* (Photo cred: *Ramadan Abed/Reuters*)

During the week also the independent investigation commissioned by the UN has found no basis to the Israeli claim that many staff of its aid agency for Palestinians, UNWRA, were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, much less involved in the October 7^th Palestinian resistance operation.⁷

That investigation result has UNRWA vindicated of the false Israeli claims but also commended on its procedures to comply with the impartiality requirements of the UN and of its funders, many of which however now stand condemned for withdrawal of their funding from starving people.

But UNRWA chiefs should share the condemnation for appearing to give the accusations credibility in firing some of their Palestinian staff, not to mention sacking appallingly and reducing to poverty a number without hearing or appeal, on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations.

And from a source known for lying for decades and long hostile to the UNWRA organisation. True to type, the Israeli government has rejected the findings, despite having provided no verification of its accusations to date.

Few official actors of states or of the UN come out well in evaluation over the last six months of this daily broadcast genocide.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1Interestingly the word “slogan” is itself from the Irish language, or at least Scottish Gaedhlig, meaning a “call to/from the multitude/ troop”.

2 https://dublinpeople.com/news/northsideeast/articles/2016/02/02/the-story-of-christy-moore-and-the-stardust-song/

3In the Brazen Head pub, Dublin, June 1972.

4 https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/berlin-police-ban-irish-protesters-from-speaking-or-singing-in-irish-at-pro-palestine-ciorcal-comhra-near-reichstag/a234500393.html

5 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/as-more-bodies-found-un-human-rights-chief-horrified-by-gaza-mass-graves

6 https://www.thenational.scot/news/24261522.israeli-drones-playing-sounds-babies-crying-opening-fire/

7 https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24157684.owen-jones-scotlands-stance-unrwa-vindicated/

SOURCES

The story of Christy Moore and the Stardust song

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/berlin-police-ban-irish-protesters-from-speaking-or-singing-in-irish-at-pro-palestine-ciorcal-comhra-near-reichstag/a234500393.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/as-more-bodies-found-un-human-rights-chief-horrified-by-gaza-mass-graves

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24261522.israeli-drones-playing-sounds-babies-crying-opening-fire

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24157684.owen-jones-scotlands-stance-unrwa-vindicated

TENS OF THOUSANDS IN PALESTINE SOLIDARITY IN DUBLIN MARCH – AND ZIONIST PROVOCATION

On March 25, 2024March 25, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Executions, Gaeilge, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Resistance Art, Trade unionsLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 7 mins.)

Numbers approaching 100 thousand marched in Palestine solidarity in Dublin on Saturday as the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign held its 5^th national march since October, attended by people from Donegal to Cork and from the 6-County British colony.

It took place in a week in which the genocidal zionist settler state exercised its “right to defence” by its fourth attack on the Al-Shifa Hospital, massacring over 170 unarmed civilians including women and children and using others as human shields.

In addition the zionists executed the Chief of the Gaza police and a Deputy (along with the latter’s family), claiming them to be guerrillas but apparently in retaliation for their successful organisation of a recent flour delivery without riots or any civilians murdered by the Occupation Forces.

Meanwhile, the response of the colonial and zionist collaborator, the Palestine Authority, was to continue its repression of Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and to open fire on the funeral of three martyrs¹ of the heroic latest battle of Jenin, a scene of many past battles.

*The front of the march begins to enter Dublin’s main street, O’Connell Street* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The official figure for Palestinians killed in this latest genocide on screens and before the eyes of the world is now nearing 33,000 dead with well over 74,000 injured and an estimated 8,000 buried under rubble from Israeli bombing in the zionist state’s “right to defence”.

None of the leaders of the Western imperialist states seem to ask themselves whether, if this is truly the necessary cost to Israel’s ‘defence’, does that state deserve to exist at all?

*“Nakba never ended” placard seen in this section of the march in O’Connell Street* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

MARCH AND ZIONIST PROVOCATION

The march began as has become customary at the Garden of Remembrance² in the north side of the capital city from where it eventually began to make its way down through the city’s main street, its end taking nearly half an hour to pass through and to cross the river to the south side.

From there, chanting slogans that have since become well-known in solidarity of the Palestinians and their right to self-determination, in outrage at the actions of the zionist state and its imperialist supporters, the marchers made their way to rally outside the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Here many listened to speeches and performances but significant numbers shortly peeled away to make their ways back home or to relax in the city’s cafes and restaurants (after all, what were they going to hear that they had not heard and read before?).

Irish Republican organisations were not noticeably present, even those few that had been visibly present on recent demonstrations; difficult to guess at the reason, even with preparations for 1916 commemorations no doubt being undergone for next weekend and afterwards.

As usual on large demonstrations, the marchers had not experienced the insults and bizarre shouts of “Traitors!”³ by far-Rightists and racists to which smaller solidarity pickets are often subjected but, as part of the march neared Cuffe Street, a man with a large Israeli flag passed them.

From near me shouts of “Zionist! Baby-killers!” arose but he passed. Later he was seen being escorted by a Garda from the rally with his Zionist flag but also a Palestinian flag which people speculated he had taken from a demonstrator.⁴ Some more Gardaí gathered around the Zionist.

Shortly thereafter, he was permitted/ encouraged to leave the area with at least his flag pole⁵. Many commented that the outcome would have been very different if it had been a case of a Palestinian supporter provoking a Zionist rally and, indeed, I have witnessed such some years ago.

When I lived in London I regularly saw Zionists provoking Palestinian supporters and dancing Israeli dances near them. Whenever outraged demonstrators drew near to challenge them, the Palestine supporters were attacked by the London Metropolitan Police.

At a parallel Palestine solidarity march on Saturday in London, a small group of Zionists waved Israeli and Union Jack flags but were soon swamped by Palestinian and Irish – yes Irish! – flags. In London at least there have been Irish flags on every Palestinian solidarity march since October 8^th.

TRADE UNIONS

Banners and flags of Irish-based trade unions were well-represented on the march but with at most a couple of dozen marching behind them. Specific worker groups such as “Health Workers for Palestine” replied to my enquiry that they had organised the group without support from their unions.

*Banners of INTO, the largest teaching union in Ireland (primary level in the state and primary and post levels in the colony) precedes some flags of the UNITE union.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Where are the militant actions by the trade union brothers and sisters of murdered Palestinian medical staff including paramedics, journalists (for which job Palestine is the most dangerous place in the world), food distribution workers, poets and writers?

It is well past the time when it was sufficient for Irish trade unions to bring banners and flags on to the street every couple of weeks with a dozen members or so marching behind them. In October they should have been leading their members to the marches in at least their hundreds.

By November last year at least, the trade unions should have been planning actions to take in physical solidarity, moving beyond marches and pickets to sit-downs and other kinds of solidarity action. How do Israeli goods come into Ireland and how are they sold?

Clearly they are handled and administered by workers and some of those at least⁶ are unionised. Union-backed boycott actions would put pressure not only on the Israeli economy but also on other companies colluding with them, as with the supermarkets who stock their products.

Pressure on the latter would translate into pressure not only on the Israeli state but on the political management of the economic bases of states and also on the political management of the countries where they are operating, for example in Ireland.

Who knows, the unions might even boost their recruitment with such action, in a country where once most would not dream of crossing a picket line but where now many youth do not even comprehend the nature or purpose of a trade union.

REPRESSION

Meanwhile, those who ARE taking action in solidarity with Palestine are experiencing repression, not yet to the extent that is occurring in the French and German states, but repression nevertheless. Some marchers on Saturday carried a banner protesting the criminalisation of solidarity.

In recent months a number of people have experienced dawn house raids by the police, in addition to arrests in the course of demonstrations or pickets. Defence of people victimised for solidarity actions has always been an important part of solidarity movements.

Most of the political parties nor the IPSC will be organising or even calling for such defence and it is up to the ordinary people in the solidarity movement to mobilise to attend and protest the court cases and attend pickets in solidarity with victimised activists.

In the months ahead, those victimised up to now and quite possibly more still will be attending court on separate dates as their cases are scheduled to be heard. It is also important as a general principle that activists refuse to agree to refrain from solidarity actions as a condition of bail.

A number of Palestine solidarity activists recently had a private meeting with officials of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the organisation also held a recent day of sessions and workshops on civil rights for protesters.

*Campaigning organisation for housing and against evictions* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

SHAMEFUL SHAMROCKS

Saturday’s march took place a week after St. Patrick’s Day when to the disgust of many people in Ireland, representatives of the Irish Government and even of a number of Opposition political parties attended in Washington to celebrate the day with President Biden and others.

As a result, no doubt, the presence of the Sinn Féin party on the march was small and muted and the flags of the Social Democrats absent, a party recently prominent in pressure on the Irish Government to join the ICJ case against the Israeli State and even to expel their Ambassador.

One supposes that those who are in a queue to manage the Gombeen state have to show their fitness for doing so by bowing before the leader of western imperialism; whatever their private feelings may be, they need to show that they have the stomach to do what the system requires of its servants.

*“No shamrocks for Genocide Joe” placard in this section of the march* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

LESS SLOGANS and LESS IRISH?

It seemed to me that there were in general less slogans being chanted on this demonstration and that that their range was less than usual. Possibly this reflects a feeling that the demonstrations are becoming more routine and less capable of stirring emotion.

Possibly too, the sheer daily weight of zionist atrocities is oppressing people and wearing down their capacity for outrage. In either case it would seem that in addition to giant demonstrations, other actions are needed to release the latent emotional energy of the people.

On this demonstration there was much less Irish language seen in placards, flags or banners than has been the case recently and which had been growing over the months, as I’ve been commenting upon in previous reports. This is regrettable and hopefully will be remedied.

The Irish language NGO Connradh na Gaeilge had a group and banner on the march as has been the case for months, shouting among other slogans “Saoirse don Phalaistín!” A small group also had a banner in Irish declaring that they were Múinteoirí (teachers) ar son na Palestíne.

ART AGAINST GENOCIDE

The lines of baby romper suits or baby-grows made their appearance on the march again as did the bloody butcher image of Prime Minister Netanyahu, with a diabolical Biden on the reverse of the placard. A large ‘puppet’ of Biden with bloody hands was carried riding above the march.

*Tail end of Mothers Against Genocide followed by puppet of bloody-hands US President Joe Biden* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

*LGBT section denounces Israeli state’s attempt to paint itself as liberal through decriminalising the LGBT community* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The A2-size beautiful coloured image of Palestinian resistance solidarity was seen again but however overall the variety and ingenuity of home-made placards seen previously had diminished.

The Mothers Against Genocide group carried their white bundles depicting the slaughter of Palestinian children and sang sentences in Arabic and Irish from Róisín Elsafty and Sharon Shannon’s song “An Phalaistín”, effectively interspersed with slogans.

The sight that brought a hush over all witnessing it was the section carrying many yellow infant school chairs, a grim reminder of the huge daily ongoing Zionist genocide inflicted on the Palestinian children in Gaza.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1Mohammed Al-Fayed, Ahmed Barakat, Mahmoud Al-Fayeed (Resistance News Network on Telegram, 20/3/’24)

2Originally dedicated to those who fought for Irish freedom since the first Republican uprising in 1798 it has since been recognised as commemorating all those who gave their lives in the nation’s struggle for self-determination (though certainly officialdom would disagree with honouring those who fought that struggle since the founding of the current Irish state in 1921).

3These elements claim it is ‘treason’ for Irish people to support any other struggle than the Irish national one, which they conceive of as attacking immigrants and LBGT people. Their concept of “national struggle” has never included struggling against foreign occupation, supporting Republican prisoners, opposing multinationals’ exploitation of national resources and infrastructure or fighting for universal affordable housing.

4He might also have carried it concealed all along, with the intention of destroying it in front of the marchers; how it came into his possession is unknown to me at this point. He may have departed carrying both flags in his coat etc.

5It did not seem from a distance that the Gardaí had confiscated his Israeli flag but more likely he had been told to remove it from the pole while leaving the area.

6Despite the huge drop in the percentage of unionised workers in Ireland over recent decades.

SOME SOURCES

Latest statistics on zionist genocide: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/-palestinians-killed-by-israel-in-gaza-since-last-oct-7-near-32-000/3169468

PA Security fired on funeral of Jenin martyrs: Resistance News Network on Telegram (20/3/’24)

Al Shifa Hospital massacre: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/20/israeli-military-says-90-people-killed-in-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-raid

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/international-community-must-act-immediately-stop-israeli-armys-massacre-palestinians-al-shifa-hospital-enar

https://www.breakingnews.ie/israel-hamas/fleeing-palestinians-describe-israeli-raid-on-gaza-strip-hospital-1605671.html

GOMBEENS TEACH SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS A LESSON

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

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 8 mins.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ROAR OF SOLIDARITY OUTSIDE LEINSTER HOUSE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IN PALESTINE TODAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE

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

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

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

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

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

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

End.

FOOTNOTES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13Ibid

14Ibid.

15Ibid.

16Ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCES

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

CROWD PACKS FOURTH DUBLIN PALESTINE SOLIDARITY RALLY DESPITE CONSTANT RAIN

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

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 5 mins.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

SLOGANS, SONG AND POEM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MOTION DEBATED

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

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

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

“Expel the Israeli Ambassador!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

end.

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

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

FOOTNOTES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11Peoples’ Front for the Liberation of Palestine

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

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

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

15Ibid.

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

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

SOURCES

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

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

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

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

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

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

THEFT OF PALESTINIAN LAND COMMEMORATED IN DUBLIN CITY CENTRE

On April 5, 2023April 5, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 2 mins.)

Palestinian flags waved as people gathered on the pedestrian reservation in Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, to mark Palestinian Land Day March 30^th, anniversary of the 1976 confiscation of Palestinian land by the Israeli Zionist State.

Naturally, the event also addresses the continual threat to additional Palestinian land by Zionist settler occupation, Israeli judicial and army demolition of Palestinian housing and intimidation, harassment and terrorism against Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Palestine supporters gathering for Land Day (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

The Dublin event was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a broad organisation that receives broad support not only across the Irish Left and Republican spectrum but also from a great many non-aligned Irish people and even many among voters for mainstream political parties.

This support was emphasised by frequent drivers in passing traffic, both public, taxis and entirely private, blowing their horns in approval of the rally. The population of the Irish state has gone from being in general support of the Israeli State to being generally hostile to its behaviour.¹

Zionists tend to depict anti-Israeli Zionism as being anti-Jewish and therefore, according to them, “anti-semitic”². Quite apart from the wide inapplicability of the term and some isolated historical examples dredged up³, it fails to account for the change in public attitudes over recent decades.

The iconic GPO in the background (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

It has been years of viewing even media-sanitised coverage of massacres of Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces with international impunity that has radically altered the opinion of the public in Ireland, in all probability drawing on their own historical experience of foreign occupation.

An elderly Irishman voicing anti-Jewish views did in fact approach the rally but was confronted by other Irish people who emphasised that they were against the Zionist state and not against Jews, soon causing the first man to depart unhappily.

The continual occupation of Palestinian land by Zionist settlers has invalidated even the “two-state solution” (sic) beloved of liberals, making it a practical impossibility, undermining the main ‘concession’ of the supposed solution of the USA-mediated “Palestinian peace process” of 1991.

The refusal of the Israeli authorities to permit the return of Palestinian exiles while welcoming Jewish settlers, most of whom had no even ancestral connection to Palestine, means that the future for Palestinians in the Israeli state can be at best as an oppressed minority.⁴

Other Palestine news

Even as preparations for the Dublin rally took place, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian they claimed had tried to wrest a gun from them at the Al Haq Mosque but whom Palestinian eye-witnesses said had merely been protesting the police harassment of a woman.

Since the rally, another two Palestinians have been killed in an by Israeli armed forces raid on Nablus. This brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year alone to over 90, with a high proportion of them children.

Mass protests and even mini-riots by Israeli Jews are currently expressing opposition to the current government’s plans to ‘reform’ the judiciary, to bring it under the greater control of the Executive.

While Israeli Jews are deeply divided on this question the vast majority are agreed on the need to suppress Palestinians, to enforce apartheid and to keep the State as ‘Jewish’ one.

Meanwhile an April 1^st Fool’s Day hoax depicting an executive of the sports shoe manufacturer company Puma declaring a boycott of the Zionist state was widely shared on the Twitter social media to overwhelmingly welcoming comment.

Exposure of the hoax received mixed responses, with wide condemnation from pro-Israeli and even some pro-Palestinian sources but others claiming it helped to widely publicise the manufacturer Puma’s close links to the Zionist State and that would enhance its boycott by many.

End.

Footnotes

1Dublin City has had Jewish municipal Councillors and the sixth President of Israel, Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חיים הרצוג‎; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Irish-born Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author who served as the 6^th President of Israel between 1983 and 1993. He was born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin; his father was Ireland’s Chief rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, who immigrated to the British protectorate of Palestine in 1935 and served in the Haganah Zionist paramilitary group, later the Israeli Army where he reached the rank of Major-General. As recently as 1967 the prevailing Irish public opinion seemed sympathetic to the Israeli State and the fictional propaganda and wildly inaccurate historical Hollywood films Exodus (1960) and Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) were widely viewed sympathetically in Ireland.

2The term originally included hatred or fear of all Semitic people, including Arabs and Jews but has come to be understood as exclusively meaning a racist attitudes towards Jews. By no means all Jews are Zionist though Zionists have worked long and hard to make both descriptions interchangeable with a great deal of success among the world Jewish population with possible unfortunate consequences for Jewish populations outside Israel. However many Jews have criticised the behaviour of the Zionist State towards Palestinians, earning the hatred of the Zionists, who cannot label them as anti-semitic and therefore call them “self-hating Jews”.

3And even outright lies and unlikely conspiracy attitudes, such as that Irish authorities are feeding anti-Semitism into the Irish population (see ‘Ireland most hostile country in Europe’ (ynetnews.com) )

4A substantial Israeli Zionist body of opinion favours the total expulsion of Palestinians from the territory ruled by the State.

Sources & Further Information

Land Day – Wikipedia

‘Ireland most hostile country in Europe’ (ynetnews.com)

European countries with most antisemitic attitudes have fewest attacks – poll | The Times of Israel

Israeli police kill man at Jerusalem’s holiest site (breakingnews.ie)

Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in occupied West Bank raid | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

April Fool’s gone wrong: No, Puma did not sever ties with Israel – Doha News | Qatar

Puma’s sponsorship of Israeli teams highlights the double standard in international football (theconversation.com)

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign website (also has a Facebook page): Home – Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (ipsc.ie)