BRITISH INTELLIGENCE PLAN FOR INVASION OF UKRAINE

On February 10, 2026June 16, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Fascism, History, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

(Reading time: 9 mins.)

Kit Klarenberg

(Transcribed in entirety but reformatted for Rebel Breeze by permission of the author from his 16 August 2025 article in Al Mayadeen titled Declassified: CIA’s covert Ukraine invasion plan.)

Introduction

We tend to see US Imperialism as the hidden hand behind the Zelensky regime and understandably so, as the US is the leader of NATO. But British Intelligence has played a major role there from many decades in the past right up to the present.

Kit Klarenberg’s article discussing plans of the CIA in earlier times to invade Ukraine also deals with the much-less understood role of the British secret services in similar objectives. British spy planes are supporting the genocide in Gaza and their spooks are active in Ukraine.

Many of the invasion assessments of these agencies in times past had to dispense with propaganda in the interests of accuracy and in fact bear out what many opponents of the NATO-proxy war and Ukrainian regime have been saying about the various sympathies of the people in Ukraine.

Expressing these realities had us, despite the track record of many, being labelled ‘Putinistas’ by elements of the electoral Left as well as by liberals. Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

Diarmuid Breatnach

Kit Klareberg writes:

On August 7, US polling giant Gallup published the remarkable results of a survey of Ukrainians. Public support for Kiev “fighting until victory” has plummeted to a record low “across all segments” of the population, “regardless of region or demographic group.”

In a “nearly complete reversal from public opinion in 2022,” 69% of citizens “favour a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible.” Just 24% wish to keep fighting. However, vanishingly few believe the proxy war will end anytime soon.

The reasons for Ukrainian pessimism on this point are unstated, but an obvious explanation is the intransigence of President Volodymyr Zelensky, encouraged by his overseas backers – Britain in particular.

London’s reverie of breaking up Russia into readily exploitable chunks dates back centuries, and became turbocharged in the wake of the February 2014 Maidan coup.¹

In July that year, a precise blueprint for the current proxy conflict was published by the Institute for Statecraft, a NATO/MI6 cut-out founded by veteran British military intelligence apparatchik Chris Donnelly.

In response to the Donbass “civil war“, Statecraft advocated targeting Moscow with a variety of “anti-subversive measures”. This included “economic boycott, breach of diplomatic relations,” as well as “propaganda and counter-propaganda, pressure on neutrals.”

The objective was to produce “armed conflict of the old-fashioned sort” with Russia, which “Britain and the West could win.”

While we are now witnessing in real-time the brutal unravelling of Donnelly’s monstrous plot, Anglo-American designs of using Ukraine as a beachhead for all-out war with Moscow date back far further.

In August 1957, the CIA secretly drew up elaborate plans for an invasion of Ukraine by US special forces. It was hoped that neighbourhood anti-Communist agitators would be mobilized as foot soldiers to assist in the effort.

A detailed 200-page report, Resistance Factors and Special Forces Areas, set out demographic, economic, geographical, historical, and political factors throughout the then-Soviet Socialist Republic that could facilitate or impede Washington’s quest to ignite local insurrection, and in turn the USSR’s ultimate collapse.

The mission was forecast to be a delicate and difficult balancing act, as much of Ukraine’s population held “few grievances” against Russians or Communist rule, which could be exploited to foment an armed uprising.

Just as problematically, “the long history of union between Russia and Ukraine, which stretches in an almost unbroken line from 1654 to the present day,” resulted in “many Ukrainians” having “adopted the Russian way of life”. ²

Problematically, there was thus a pronounced lack of “resistance to Soviet rule” among the population.

The “great influence” of Russian culture over Ukrainians, “many influential positions” in local government being held “by Russians or Ukrainians sympathetic to [Communist] rule, and “relative similarity” of their “languages, customs, and backgrounds,” meant there were “fewer points of conflict between the Ukrainians and Russians” than in Warsaw Pact nations.

Throughout those satellite states, the CIA had to varying success already recruited clandestine networks of “freedom fighters” as anti-Communist Fifth Columnists. Yet, the Agency remained keen to identify potential “resistance” actors in Ukraine:

“Some Ukrainians are apparently only slightly aware of the differences which set them apart from Russians and feel little national antagonism. Nevertheless, important grievances exist, and among other Ukrainians there is opposition to Soviet authority which often has assumed a nationalist form.

Under favorable conditions, these people might be expected to assist American Special Forces in fighting against the regime.”

‘Nationalist Activity’

A CIA map split Ukraine into 12 separate zones, ranked on “resistance” potential, and how “favorable population attitudes [are] toward the Soviet regime.” South and eastern regions, particularly Crimea and Donbass, rated poorly.

Their populations were judged “strongly loyal” to Moscow, having never “displayed nationalist feelings or indicated any hostility to the regime,” while viewing themselves as “a Russian island in the Ukrainian sea.”

In fact, as the study recorded, during and after World War I, when Germany created a fascist puppet state in Ukraine:

“Inhabitants of Donbass strongly resisted Ukrainian nationalists and at one point created a separate republic, independent of the rest of Ukraine. ³

In the following years, they defended Soviet rule and Russian interests, often attacking the Ukrainian nationalists with more zeal than the Russian leaders themselves.

During the German occupation in the Second World War, there was not a single recorded case of support for the Ukrainian nationalists or Germans.”

Still, invading and occupying Crimea was considered of paramount importance. On top of its strategic significance, the peninsula’s landscape was forecast as ideal for guerrilla warfare. The terrain offered “excellent opportunities for concealment and evasion,” the CIA report noted.

While “troops operating in these sectors must be specially trained and equipped,” it was forecast that the local Tatar population, “which fought so fiercely” against the Soviets in World War II, “would probably be willing to help” invading US forces.

Areas of western Ukraine, including former regions of Poland such as Lviv, Rivne, Transcarpathia, and Volyn, which were heavily under control of “Ukrainian insurgents” – adherents of Stepan Bandera ⁴ – during World War II, were judged most fruitful “resistance” launchpads.

There, “nationalist activity was extensive” during World War II, with armed militias opposing “pro-Soviet partisans with some success.”

Conveniently, too, the mass extermination of Jews, Poles, and Russians by Banderites in these regions meant there was virtually no non-ethnic Ukrainian population left.

Furthermore, in the post-war period, “resistance to Soviet rule” had been “expressed on a great scale” in western Ukraine. Despite “extensive deportations”, “many nationalists” remained in Lviv et al, and “nationalist cells” created by Bandera’s “task forces” remained dotted around the country.

For example, anti-Communist “partisan bands” had taken up residence in the Carpathian Mountains.

The review concluded, “It is in this region [US] Special Forces could expect considerable support from the local Ukrainian population, including active participation in measures directed against the Soviet regime.”

It was also determined that “Ukrainian nationalist, anti-Soviet sentiment” in Kiev was “apparently moderately strong,” and elements of the population “might be expected to provide active assistance to Special Forces.”

The capital’s “large Ukrainian population” was reportedly “little affected by Russian influence,” and during the Russian Revolution, “provided greater support than any other region for Ukrainian, nationalist, anti-Soviet forces.”

Resultantly, “uncertainty about the attitudes of the local population” prompted Moscow to designate the Ukrainian SSR’s capital, which it remained until 1934.

The CIA document further offered highly detailed assessments of Ukrainian territory, related to their utility for warfare.

For example, “generally forbidding” Polesia – near Belarus – was noted to be “almost impossible” to traverse during spring. Conversely, winter provided “most favorable to movement, depending on the depth to which the ground freezes.”

Overall, the area had “proved its worth as an excellent refuge and evasion area by supporting large-scale guerrilla activities in the past.” Meanwhile, “swampy valleys of the Dnieper and Desna rivers” were of particular interest:

“The area is densely forested in its north-western part, where there are excellent opportunities for concealment and maneuver…There are extensive swamps, interspersed with patches of forest, which also provide good hiding places for the Special Forces.

Conditions in the Volyno-Podolskaya Highlands are less suitable, although small groups may find temporary shelter in the sparse forests.”

‘Strongly Anti-Nationalist’

The CIA’s invasion plan never formally came to pass. Yet, areas of Ukraine forecast by the Agency to be most welcoming of US special forces were precisely where support for the Maidan coup was the highest.

Moreover, in a largely unknown chapter of the Maidan saga, fascist Right Sector militants were bused en masse to Crimea prior to Moscow’s seizure of the peninsula. Had they succeeded in overrunning the territory, Right Sector would’ve fulfilled the CIA’s objective, as outlined in Resistance Factors and Special Forces Areas.

Given what transpired elsewhere in Ukraine following February 2014, other sections of the CIA report took on a distinctly eerie character. For instance, despite its strategic position facing the Black Sea, the Agency warned against attempting to foment anti-Soviet rebellion in Odessa.

The agency noted the city is “the most cosmopolitan area in Ukraine, with a heterogeneous population including significant numbers of Greeks, Moldovans and Bulgarians, as well as Russians and Jews.”

As such: “Odessa…has developed a less nationalistic character. Historically, it has been considered more Russian than Ukrainian territory.⁵

There was little evidence of nationalist or anti-Russian sentiment here during the Second World War, and the city…was in fact controlled by a strongly anti-nationalist local administration [during the conflict].”

Odessa became a key battleground between pro- and anti-Maidan elements from the moment the Maidan protests erupted in November 2013.

By March the next year, Russophone Ukrainians had occupied the city’s historic Kulykove Pole Square, and were calling for a referendum on the establishment of an “Odessa Autonomous Republic”.

Tensions came to a head on May 2, when fascist football ultras – who subsequently formed the Azov Battalion – flooded Odessa and forced dozens of anti-Maidan activists into the Trade Unions House, before setting it ablaze.

In all, 42 people were killed and hundreds were injured, while Odessa’s anti-Maidan movement was comprehensively neutralized. In March this year, the European Court of Human Rights issued a damning ruling against Kiev over the massacre.

It concluded local police and fire services “deliberately” failed to respond appropriately to the inferno, and authorities insulated culpable officials and perpetrators from prosecution despite possessing incontrovertible evidence.

Lethal “negligence” by officials on the day, and ever after, was found to go far “beyond an error of judgment or carelessness.”

The ECHR was apparently unwilling to consider that the lethal incineration of anti-Maidan activists was an intentional and premeditated act of mass murder, conceived and directed by Kiev’s US-installed fascist government.

However, the findings of a Ukrainian parliamentary commission point ineluctably towards this conclusion.

Whether, in turn, the Odessa massacre was intended to trigger Russian intervention in Ukraine, thus precipitating “armed conflict of the old-fashioned sort” with Moscow that “Britain and the West could win” is a matter of speculation.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1The US-sponsored coup that removed pro-Russian President Yanukovych and installed pro-Western powers Poroshenko (Zelensky’s forerunner).

2Highlighting is mine (DB).

3Highlighting is mine (DB).

4A fascist and Nazi occupation collaborator which President Yuschenko (Yanukovych’s forerunner) tried to recognise a Ukrainian national hero in 2010 (while criticising ‘national heroes’ was also declared a crime), which only failed due the requirement for candidates to have been a Ukrainian citizen, which Bandera had never been. His birthday is nevertheless celebrated annually by the State and features a torchlit parade of far-Rightists and fascists.

5 Highlighting is mine (DB).

SOURCE

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/declassified–cia-s-covert-ukraine-invasion-plan

RESIST IMPERIALISM BUT NOT COLONIALISM?

On February 8, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialismo, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, NATO, Political Analysis, US Imperialism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

There is an unfortunate trend in the socialist movement in Ireland to underplay or even to completely ignore the continuing colonial occupation of Ireland, while at the same time raising the other evils of imperialism and capitalism.

This harmful trend is epitomised by an article from Paul Murphy in the current issue of the ecosocialist Rupture magazine¹ (of RISE, a network of the People Before Profit political party) – without conscious irony entitled THE MAIN ENEMY IS AT HOME – TODAY.

In the piece under discussion, Murphy discusses the blocs forming up in contention and for world war, with the US leading the western bloc and China-Russia the Eastern,² with the ruling classes of the EU and Ireland lined up with the USA, though the Irish State is not yet a part of NATO.

This is a correct analysis by Murphy and he is right to call for defence of the Triple Lock³ as far as we can in order to prevent or at least impede the Irish ruling class from dragging the population of the Irish state into imperialist war.

Invoking the threat of NATO as a war-making alliance and danger to the limited neutrality of the Irish state is of course absolutely correct. But how can the actual NATO membership of the Occupied Six Counties be ignored in that analysis? Yet Murphy does so, completely.

Murphy is neither blind nor stupid and one must suspect that he does not mention Britain’s Irish colony because his former and current parties both fear to mix their ‘class politics’ with any kind of Irish nationalism – even anti-colonialism – or to find common cause with Irish Republicans.

Those parties took a sudden interest in the potential politics of a united Ireland only when discussion of that possibility was being thrown around in the media and by some political actors.⁴ But before and afterwards, they ignored them (except on occasion to castigate Irish Republicans).

The ‘enemy at home’ is indeed, as Murphy states, Irish capitalism – however not also British colonialism? But it cannot be ignored that Irish capitalism is subservient to British colonialism, US and EU imperialism. Well, can’t be ignored by revolutionaries that is, whether Marxist or not.

*Ireland as treated in the Rupture analysis – but something’s missing!* (Image sourced: Internet)

It was through analysis of the subservience of the Irish capitalist class that Connolly wrote that “Only the Irish working class remains as the only incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland”⁵ – and that was even before the bourgeois counter-revolution/ Civil War of 1922-’23.

Murphy, PBP and the Socialist Party are all fond of quoting James Connolly but only selectively and never on the question of overthrowing British rule in Ireland.⁶

A TIMELY WARNING

Before ending let us note that Paul Murphy’s words are not those of some green novitiate; aside from being a TD,⁷ he is a long-standing member of the Irish Trotskyist movement, formerly a leading member of the Irish Socialist Party before he left it to join PBP-Solidarity.⁸

Furthermore he has been active at times in street events and was one of the Jobstown Five who were arrested in early-morning raids by the Gardaí and tried but found ‘not guilty’ on charges of ‘kidnapping’ Joan Burton, Tánaiste⁹ of the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition government.¹⁰

We are entitled to assume, given his prominence and the article’s publication, that Murphy’s political position outlined here is one with which PBP-Solidarity and Rise find no serious disagreement, to the disgrace of any party claiming to be Marxist and revolutionary in Ireland.

Furthermore, their position gives activists timely warning once again that although we may well join with PBP on certain issues, including opposition to US imperialism, they will not be found to the serious side against British colonialism in Ireland or in any fully-committed struggle against NATO.

While upholding principles of a broad front, in any struggle we need to be fairly sure of which forces will stand with us to the end and which may drop us, perhaps even at the worst and most dangerous moment.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1p.5, Issue 17, Winter 2025-2026

2In the course of which Murphy states that Russia is an imperialist country but neglects to show any evidence of that. Capitalist and undemocratic does not equal imperialist, which Marxists today understand as the export of finance capital to extract super-profits from under-developed lands through exploitation of the labour there and plunder of their natural resources.

3Ireland’s “Triple Lock” is a policy requiring UN mandate, Government approval, and Parliamentary approval before more than 12 Irish troops may be deployed in overseas support operations.

4Though never taken seriously by some, including myself. I commented that British colonialism/imperialism had many opportunities to end their colonial rule in Ireland and on each occasion had dug their heels in harder, most recently by fighting a vicious war of three decades. In addition, if it were ever even half-considered, it is the British who would decide what the proper majority percentage would be, after which it would need to be agreed in Westminster and then approved by the British Monarch.

5Connolly’s foreword to his Labour in Irish History (1910), last line of the final full paragraph. https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1910/lih/foreword.htm

6Sadly it is also true that many Irish Republicans quote Connolly only in the reverse, i.e. only about Ireland’s national liberation struggle.

7Teachta Dála, elected member of the lower house of the parliament of the Irish State.

8People Before Profit is now what used to be called the Socialist Workers’ Party, an iteration of a British-based Trotskyist party, as is the Irish Socialist Party similarly of the British-based Socialist Party.

9The Tánaiste is equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister in the UK and many other parliamentary systems.

10(2011-2014)

THOUSANDS OF ISIS FIGHTERS FREED IN SYRIAN FORCES ASSAULT ON AL-SHADADDI PRISON

On January 19, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Indigenous or Original People, Kurdistan, NATO, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Religious Sectarianism, Syria, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 8 mins.)

Thousands of ex-ISIL (ISIS) fighters and their families have been freed during the Syrian government forces assault on the SDF-guarded Al-Shaddadi jail. Both sides blame the other for the release although the Government forces admit their assault.

The SDF, mainly Kurdish forces supported by the US/ NATO coalition to oust the former Assad regime, have been guarding an estimated 10,000 prisoners in the jail since the collapse of the ISIS offensive in the region.¹

Observers have feared the release of the ISIS fighters and their ‘radicalised’ families since the December 2024 collapse of the Assad regime in a Turkey-supported offensive.

That attack was led by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, former Al Qaeda fighter and second-in-command of the ISIS-supported al-Nusra forces in Syria, a coalition of fundamental Islamist jihadists fighting under ISIS leadership though their leader claims to have fundamentally changed.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa changed his name to al-Jolani and claims to have renounced ISIS, proclaimed himself President of Syria and filled his cabinet with ‘former’ ISIS commanders, since which Western imperialist leaders have accepted him and Trump praised him greatly.

*Cartoon by Carlos Latuf depicting the Western imperialist makeover of the ISIS Ahmed al-Sharaa to al-Jolani, self-appointed President of Syria* (Sourced: *Internet*)

The western powers cancelled his designation of ‘terrorist’, presented their compliments at his throne, some, including French and German envoys, travelling to meet him² (even before the $10m bounty on his head³ had been removed). Or invited him to call, as Macron did for France.⁴

Al-Jolani offered friendship to ‘Israel’ even as the IOF occupied additional parts of Syria and bombed any remaining military installations of the Assad regime.⁵

THE KURDISH-LED SDF, TURKEY AND AL-JOLANI

The objective of the SDF had been to overthrow Assad so as to form a Kurdish state within Syria in order to link up with other Kurdish regions to create a federal Kurdish state. Turkey feared this project, having fought decades of bloody war against the PKK in its own Kurdish region.

*Apologies for use of CIA map but difficult to get publishable image showing Kurdish-controlled areas within Syria.* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

Consequently Turkey was at odds with US/NATO forces and the participation of the SDF within it, although Trump, as his previous Presidency drew to an end, publicly withdrew support for the Kurdish coalition. Turkey has welcomed the Damascus forces defeat of the SDF.

Since al-Jolani and his own coalition came to power, he attempted to integrate the SDF fighters within his own forces. The Kurds reluctantly agreed but insisted they be incorporated as a unit and not dispersed among al-Jolani’s forces, a proposal declined by the new President.

Since then there have been numerous clashes between the different forces, with the SDF holding their own, until the recent few days when they lost a number of strongholds, including that guarding the Al-Shaddadi prison, leading to thousands of former ISIS fighters being freed.

This prison breach, welcomed by Turkey,⁶ must be viewed with horror by many Syrians, in particular by the Yazidi, Alawite, Druze and Christian communities who have been subjected to home invasions, humiliation and massacres, along with rape and kidnapping of women.⁷

Neighbouring Iraq, Lebanon and even Jordan have cause to worry too.

*Again, difficulty in getting publishable map showing Syria with its neighbours but also Iran.* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

In sifting through the disputing claims, it is worth noting that the SDF claimed that the International Coalition base, only two kilometres away from the jail in Syria’s Hasakah province, did not respond to calls for assistance⁸ and the SDF denounced the failure of the USA’s forces to support them.⁹

It is relevant too that the SDF are not Islamist Jihadists and fought them many times in Syria, although it is true that the Western powers, while supporting the SDF, also supported and instigated ISIS to overthrow Assad, although bombing them too in periodic control operations.¹⁰

Events from the coming to power of Al-Jolani to the freeing of the Al-Shaddadi Prison may hold lessons of importance too for some strains of the Western Left and Liberals who supported the insurgent opposition to Assad in favour of ‘democracy’ while parroting mass media propaganda.¹¹

It may also add a cautionary example to the dictum that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, often quoted by otherwise anti-imperialists who supported the IDF’s alliance with the US/NATO to overthrow the Assad regime.¹²

CUI BONO? WHO GAINS?

**What now?** (Cartoon *by D.Breatnach*)

One might think that the Western Powers, who have been in coalitions fighting ISIS and have suffered some attacks on themselves, including the Al Qaeda attack on New York’s Twin Towers, would be strongly opposed to this liberation of thousands of experienced Islamist jihadist fighters.

But if so, how are we to understand the refusal of the Coalition forces to intervene during the attack on the SDF forces guarding the jail? Or the Western Powers legitimising of the Al-Jolani regime running Syria, despite the al-Nusra background and religious sectarian massacres since?

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the imperialist powers wish to see those Islamic fundamentalist ex-fighters freed — but what could be their purpose? To instigate an internal conflict in Lebanon, perhaps, occupying Hezbollah away from ‘Israel’ and excusing foreign intervention?

Or keeping the Iraqi Government busy and deepening its reliance on US forces just as it seems to be asserting some independence. Or to sent north-eastwards against Iran. One thing is clear, the Western Powers allowed it and the reason nothing to do with concern about jail conditions.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1At the end of 2020, the U.S.-backed militia in northeast Syria held at least 10,000 ISIS prisoners, one of the largest populations of detained Islamists in the Middle East. Thousands of ISIS fighters were captured as the Islamic State collapsed in early 2019. The fighters were held in approximately 14 detention centers operated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-trained Kurdish and Arab militia that fought ISIS in Syria. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/islamists-imprisoned-across-middle-east

2 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/03/middleeast/eu-ministers-syria-visit-intl

3US scraps $10m bounty for arrest of Syria’s new leader Sharaa: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07gv3j818ko

4 https://thecradle.co/articles/julani-in-a-suit-how-france-turned-a-pariah-into-a-partner

5 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250416-syria-leader-jolani-privately-promised-to-normalise-ties-with-israel-by-2026-ex-uk-diplomat-says/

6From The Cradle, on Telegram: Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, said that recent gains by Syrian government forces had “thwarted” attempts by Kurdish groups to obstruct Turkiye’s peace process. Feti Yildiz, deputy leader of the government-aligned Turkish nationalist MHP party, described Sunday’s agreement in Syria as having “a favorable impact.” “Things will become easier,” Yildiz told reporters in the Turkish parliament when asked how the Syrian deal affects the PKK process. “It had been standing like an obstacle, and for now it looks as though that obstacle has been removed.” Turkish security sources, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the deal a historic turning point.

7 https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/ and https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/03/21/the-situation-in-syria-is-worse-now-than-under-isis/

8Quoted in https://shafaq.com/en/Middle-East/Syria-s-SDF-loses-control-of-Al-Shaddadi-prison-holding-ISIS-detainees and many other sources.

9 https://thecradle.co/articles/syrian-forces-overrun-isis-prison-as-sdf-condemns-us-inaction

10The SDF contains female Kurdish and Yazidi fighters too which would be anathema to Islamist fundamentalists.

11It should not be understood from this that I was a supporter of the Assad regime; I attended demonstrations against imperialist invasion and regime change while also refusing to support the regime itself. I had arranged with Eva Bartlett, a much-publicised critic of the regime-change operations of the US/NATO forces, to organise a Dublin public meeting for her to address and had her stay at my home. After learning that I was also going to criticise the regime position against the Kurds she left without explanation and I had to cancel the meeting venue booking.

12In discussions with Anarchists of the WSM (organisation no longer in existence) and Irish Republicans of (Éirigí organisation much diminished since and now in coalition with another group) I refuted the correctness of application of this principle to the major imperialist power in the world, the USA. At a conference of the Éirigí group I spoke from the floor in criticism of that and some other aspects of the SDF and was heavily criticised from the floor also while the Chairperson reiterated support for the SDF. Though no-one spoke in my support, at least three Irish Republican activists approached me afterwards to express their support for my statements.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

https://thecradle.co/articles/syrian-forces-overrun-isis-prison-as-sdf-condemns-us-inaction

Battle over the jail with different outcome in 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_al-Hasakah_(2022)

See Syria section in https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/islamists-imprisoned-across-middle-east

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/03/21/the-situation-in-syria-is-worse-now-than-under-isis/

Syria leader Jolani privately promised to normalise ties with Israel by 2026, ex-UK diplomat says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa

“THE MOST VIOLENT EVICTION I’VE EVER SEEN”

On January 17, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Housing Struggle, Ireland, Police Violence, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3mins.)

Five people sitting down to a meal were surprised by a knock on the door of their residence. What followed amounted to an hours-long Garda siege ending in arrests and the residents and supporters gathering outside being pepper-sprayed and beaten.

A housing activist who has witnessed many evictions said it was the most violent eviction they had ever seen.

A house empty for many years in the Phibsboro area had been occupied by around four people who invited a fifth to share a meal on Monday 15 December. As they were about to sit down to eat the Gardaí arrived and told the occupants that they were criminally trespassing.

The occupants explained that they had been living in the building for some time and had keys, so any accusation of trespass would be of a civil kind requiring court orders and not at all a criminal one on which Gardaí are empowered to act. The Gardaí however remained and more arrived.

Local people responding to a call for support against an illegal eviction began to arrive as did more Gardaí until there were around 13 Garda vehicles present, including the Public Order Unit; a number of attempts to batter the door down were made which were however unsuccessful.

People protesting what appeared to be an illegal eviction were pushed and shoved by Gardaí and after a while also pepper-sprayed and batoned. After some hours had elapsed the police succeeded in smashing a back window and battering down an internal door, gaining access to the building.

The people inside raised their hands to indicate no resistance being offered (some were reportedly even sitting down) but allege that they were nevertheless pepper sprayed and beaten. Four were dragged out to Garda vehicles and the remaining person was violently assaulted again.

The road outside had by this time been cleared by the Gardaí. The five arrested were taken to a police station where at least some, male and female, allege they were stripped and cavity searched, measures totally inappropriate in this kind of arrest or similar.

It will be recalled that a number of Mothers Against Genocide group protesting outside Leinster House complained of the same during their detentions in Dublin in June although the Government’s spokesperson denied to some TDs that this had occurred.

That same week anti-NATO peaceful protesters had also been pepper-sprayed and the ankle of one broken by Gardaí while a Palestine solidarity activist at DCU was dragged to the ground, with allegations of strip-searching among those too.

Video by Anti-Imperialist Action outlining the source of Dublin’s housing crisis.

All five residents of the house were charged with offences including causing fear (!) and criminal damage, kept in custody overnight and brought to court, where they were released on bail to return to court at a date in the New Year.

GARDAÍ HELPING MAINTAIN HOMELESSNESS

This Garda operation and abuse of legal powers took place in the context of the highest recorded number of homeless to that date, with 16,600 people in emergency accommodation, including morethan 5,200 children and over 4,600 women,¹not counting those sleeping on the street.

And with well over a hundred thousand buildings lying empty,² a situation constituting a paradise for property speculators, vulture funds, banks and big landlords – but misery for thousands renting, struggling with a mortgage, in unsuitable accommodation, sofa-surfing or on the street.

Indeed, the property at which the Garda violent eviction took place was reportedly empty for many years before its occupation.

A couple of years ago a group called the Revolutionary Housing League occupied empty Dublin buildings and called for people across Ireland to do the same. Sadly, their call was not followed and Gardaí mobilised huge operations including helicopters to evict a handful of occupants.

Three chief Irish Government Ministers some years past (one still in place) and Gardaí photoshopped on to 18th Century eviction scene in Ireland (original photoshopping of Gardaí by Spice Bag). (Image sourced: *Internet*)

HUMILIATION AND VIOLENCE

Strip and cavity-searching are demeaning psychological and physical invasions and should have no place in most policing actions. Even in jail, an x-ray chair is available. However strip-searching has been a constant over the years in use against political prisoners.

As violent and degrading actions become normalised in political repression they will be extended further, spreading to all kinds of policing operations.

Gardaí normalising the use of pepper-spraying against Palestine solidarity and anti-NATO direct action activities are now extending this to other types of activities of which they disapprove, even those in the sphere of civil law and outside criminal law.

As the State increases its repression, the democratic and revolutionary movements will need to increase their resistance, calling also for the active solidarity of wider society with the victims and in condemnation of the State and its police force.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/1031/1541519-homeless-figures/

2 https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2024/05/21/number-of-vacant-and-derelict-homes-brought-back-into-use-for-social-housing-fell-last-year/ and https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41728497.html

LEBANON PRESIDENT CITES IRA AS EXAMPLE FOR DISARMING HEZBOLLAH

On January 13, 2026January 29, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Guerrilla Action, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Irish Republicanism, National Sovereignty, peace processes, Political Analysis, Uncategorized, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

In an 11^th 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).

2 https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/1/7/israels-continued-attacks-on-lebanon-could-derail-hezbollah-disarmament

3By October 2025 UN experts had recorded “At least 19 abductions of civilians from Lebanon by Israeli soldiers, which may amount to cases of enforced disappearances …” https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-experts-warn-against-continued-violations-ceasefire-lebanon-and-urge

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.

JUST BECAUSE SHE’S PALESTINIAN DOESN’T MEAN SHE’S RIGHT

On January 9, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Personal Blog, Political Analysis, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

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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SOURCES

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

https://www.omsac.org/post/mahmoud-abbas-and-corruption-in-palestine-the-real-obstacles-to-democracy-and-good-governance

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/5/palestinian-authority-suppresses-criticism-of-jenin-operation-in-west-bank

1 https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/why-sinn-fein-love-palestinian-authority

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/palestinian-protesters-criticise-sinn-fein-after-being-ejected-from-belfast-rally-ANEZSGBQZFHQZHARJVRANEX5IU/

CHRISTMAS IS PART OF WAR IN WEST ASIA

On December 31, 2025January 2, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Catholic Church, Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Massacres, Middle East, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, Religious Sectarianism, Traditions & Folk CustomLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

Writing about Christmas and war tends to focus on Christmas celebration as a counter to war,¹ or alternatively on how hard it is to be celebrating Christmas in the midst of war. However, in much of West Asia, Christmas is now very much a part of the war.

This is certainly the case in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank and even inside ‘Israel’.

Among the peoples of this majority Muslim region the festivities are primarily those of Christian communities. Yet the broad Muslim population has no issue with the religious aspect of the festival, nor even with the iconic symbolism of the Holy Family and the birth in a manger of Jesus Christ.

The latter, among Christians believed a human incarnation of God, is also revered among Muslims but as a prophet, though of course lower in ranking than their highest-ranking prophet, Mohammed (c. 570 – 8 June 632 CE), allegedly of the Banu Hashim clan of the Quaraysh Arab tribe.

Among the Judaic religion, Jesus Christ is also believed a prophet.

It is important – and not just for historical reasons – to note that the major perpetrator of religious persecution from the Middle Ages on has been Christianity, led by European Christian elites persecuting followers of Judaic and Islamic religions and employing the Inquisition² against them.

Earlier of course Christianity had its internal divisions resulting in one part of Christianity persecuting another (the East-West schism) and then later the split of the Reformation, with religious and temporal powers in war and in persecution of one another and of subject populations.³

The chief object of Christian religious persecution overall was the Jews and the objects of that persecution found sanctuary in many Muslim countries and, in general, within the Austro-Hungarian Ottoman Empire.

Leaders of a number of Muslim states today are traditionally at pains to demonstrate their acceptance of Christian communities and this Christmas both Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran once more did so publicly.

Mohammed al-Sudani attended a Christian service and Masoud Pezeshkian visited a Christian family.⁴

Of course, Christmas as celebrated generally across the West is more – and one might say also much less – than a Christian or even a religious festival, with emphasis on feasting, alcoholic consumption and expenditure on presents.

Much of the symbolism too owes more to pagan religion than to Christianity.⁵

With a number of those aspects, including consumption of alcohol (traditionally forbidden by and to Muslims), pagan symbolism and more than a nod to western imperialist culture, many Muslims may take exception but even then not at all to celebration of the alleged birth of Jesus Christ.

However, for those wishing to cause divisions in predominantly Islamic societies, or in imposing their sectarian absolutist rule on society, the celebration of Christmas has become a hostile target in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank and even inside ‘Israel’.

LEBANON

Lebanon is the most ethnically-diverse of the West Asian states, approximately one-third Christian, one-third Shia Muslim and a third Sunni Muslim. For years, Christmas has been celebrated not only by the Christian community but also, to varying degrees, by the other ethnic groups also.

It is extremely worrying therefore when a primary schoolteacher taught her girl pupils and filmed them not only renouncing Christmas as ‘non-Muslim’ but calling its celebrants the equivalent of heretics. There was widespread shock when she uploaded the video she had made of the girls.

Not surprisingly, the teacher was sacked but this too was orchestrated into a controversy with extreme religious sectarians coming on to the streets to protest, including former sectarian terrorist and ex-convict for bombing a church Samir Geagea of the sectarian Lebanese Forces militia).⁶

SYRIA

Under the new regime in Syria, celebrating Christmas can get people killed.The celebration was not controversial in the majority Islamic but secular state of Syria under al-Assad but that changed following that regime’s overthrow by western-supported Islamic fundamentalist jihadists.

During Christmas 2024 units of the fundamentalist jihadist coalition under self-appointed al-Julani (formerly Ahmed al-Sharaa of the Syrian chapter of ISIS) led attacks on Christians, forbade the erection of Christmas trees and knocked down and burned some that had been erected.⁷

Earlier this year Sayara Ahl Al-Sunnah, a Syrian terrorist organization split from the ruling Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) of al-Julani in February carried out a suicide attack on the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, killing 30 Christian worshippers.⁸

Not just Christian communities are targeted in this ‘new democratic Syria’ so beloved of the Western powers but primarily really the Shia Muslim offshoots of Alawites⁹ and Druze¹⁰ communities. Both these communities are now mobilising in self-defence against the new rulers.

PALESTINE

In Gaza, blockaded and besieged, starving, flooded, homeless, cold, bombarded, even thinking of a festive celebration seems a crazy idea yet some have attempted to celebrate Christmas this year¹¹ although any gathering of Palestinians seems an invitation to an IOF raid or even bombing.

In the West Bank, the Christian pastor¹² in Ramallah, Isaac Munther, faced with the accelerating genocide in Gaza in 2023 declared there would be religious observation only and no Christmas celebrations of lights etc … but his sermon and Christ-nativity-in-rubble scene went ‘viral.’

Munther did the same during Christmas 2024 but this year the West Bank faces its own escalation of Palestinian home demolitions, army invasions, settler attacks on homes, livestock, farmland. However the IOF attacked some Palestinians who did try to celebrate a western-style Christmas.

Palestinians of other Christian denominations also tried to celebrate Christmas but met with repression and in Bethlehem there were clashes with Palestinians in Santa costume assaulted and arrested by ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces.¹³

Occupied Palestine (‘Israel’ sic) also saw a Palestinian ‘Santa Claus’ being arrested by the IOF and Palestinian celebrants assaulted in Haifa.

As the supposed Holy Land where Jesus Christ was allegedly born, Christian tourism makes a significant contribution to the income of the Zionist state.¹⁴ But even so, Palestinian Christians and even tourists have complained of being menaced and spat at by militant Zionist settler youths.¹⁵

The Israeli Zionist state likes to promote itself as culturally representing the West much more than the East – which it certainly does – but seeing this repression of Christians even celebrating Christmas, one has to wonder what kind of ‘western society’ is this?

Meanwhile, in Rome …

Discussion of Christmas entails a mention of the majority sect of western Christianity, the Catholic faith and of its leader, the Pope. And the relatively new Pontiff – and first USA-born one – did in fact refer to Gaza in the traditional Papacy Christmas message from the Vatican.

Leo XIV’s message has been lauded by some in apparent ignorance of the political position of the Vatican and of its Papacy, which has been always to support western imperialism, or in his advocacy of Zionist colonisation in the western support for a two-State solution (sic) in Palestine.¹⁶

But for democracy and anti-imperialist unity …

Republicans reject any religious role in the management of the state or of its institutions – including education¹⁷ – but should also protect the freedom to worship or celebration of festive period of any personal or organised religion — and indeed also the right to promote atheism or agnosticism.¹⁸

Anti-imperialist revolutionaries whether secular or not need to oppose religious sectarianism and promote unity in the face of imperialism. It is imperialism and colonialism that promotes inter-religious conflict and fosters fundamentalist sectarians in order to undermine anti-imperialist resistance.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1For example the famous Christmas Day informal truce of 1914, when WWI hostilities between German and Allied troops temporarily ceased on parts of the Western Front and enemy combatants exchanged greetings and gifts. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-1914-christmas-truce-fraternisation-of-an-extraordinary-kind-1.2048442

2Although it later became an instrument of Rome to ensure orthodoxy in religion, literature and science, the Inquisition was originally instituted in Iberia as a controlling agent over the forced conversions of Jews and Muslims to Christianity and later also operated as an instrument in control of the Spanish colonies.

3Of which we in Ireland have centuries of experience.

4 https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/522126/Top-officials-join-Iran-s-Christians-in-celebrating-Jesus-birth

5The ‘old man of the woods’ Santa Claus or God of thunder and lightning in a sky-chariot pulled by horned beasts (two of which are also allegedly named Thunder (Donner) and Lightning (Blitzen) and the Christmas Tree and/ or Yule Log, pagan symbols of a festival signalling the turn of the seasons.

6 https://youtu.be/b1yltoo3q6Q?t=150 almost from the beginning for part of the podcast.

7 https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/12/christmas-tree-burning-ignites-protests-in-damascus/

8This is the same group that carried out a suicide attack on the Imam Ali mosque in Homs this week, which left 8 people dead.

9Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority group who primarily live in Syria and follow Alawism, a syncretic and esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam.

10Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

11 https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/silent-christmas-in-gaza–grief–cold–and-a-genocide-that-w

12Of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

13 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/25/christmas-under-occupation-israeli-attacks-against-palestinian-christians

14“While there is no precise figure for how much Israel earns specifically from religious tourism, estimates suggest that Christian holy sites alone generate around $3 billion each year to the Israeli economy under normal circumstances — with over half of all tourist arrivals coming from Christians — and a quarter of those visitors going to Christian holy sites.” https://religionunplugged.com/news/war-in-gaza-and-the-disruption-of-pilgrimages-to-jerusalem

15 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-forces-arrest-santa-clause-raid-palestinian-christmas-celebration and https://www.instagram.com/reels/DSp2Cs6FDXW/

16 https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pope-leo-palestinian-state-only-solution-israeli-conflict-2025-11-30/

17This is an issue in many lands including Ireland where the Irish State and the colony’s both pay the salaries of teachers employed in religious-ethos schools. People have a right to religious education for their children should they wish it but in no way should the State facilitate such and, on the other hand, all children are required to attend formal education supplied by the State.

18The 1916 Rising Proclamation: “The Republic guarantees religious and civil iberty to all …”

SOURCES

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/silent-christmas-in-gaza–grief–cold–and-a-genocide-that-w

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/25/christmas-under-occupation-israeli-attacks-against-palestinian-christians

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DSp2Cs6FDXW/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-forces-arrest-santa-clause-raid-palestinian-christmas-celebration

Alawite protests and new Syrian state repression: https://thecradle.co/articles/syrian-govt-forces-supporters-attack-alawite-protesters-calling-for-end-to-killings-kidnappings

Part of new Syrian forces repression of Christmas: https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/12/christmas-tree-burning-ignites-protests-in-damascus/

Islamist sectarians whipping up anti-Christian hatred in Lebanon: https://youtu.be/b1yltoo3q6Q?t=150 (early part of podcast)

OUTSIDE DUBLIN’S BRITISH EMBASSY: GARDAÍ SCUFFLES, ‘BLOODY CORPSES’, SPEECHES, SONG AND POETRY

On December 23, 2025December 23, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Imperialism, Ireland, irish history, Palestine, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Song, Song in Struggle, ZionismLeave a comment

Clive Sulish
(Reading time: 3 mins.)

There were lively scenes today outside Dublin’s British Embassy in solidarity with the hunger strikers in British jails awaiting trial on charges arising out of Palestine Action’s operations against the Israeli arms company, Elbit Systems UK.

Two of the six hunger strikers are in their 50^th days without food and approaching the point where fatal seizures are possible or suffering irreversible damage to body systems. Their demands are release on bail, a fair trial, de-proscription of Palestine Action and the closure of Elbit Systems.

*Early shot of hunger-striker solidarity protesters outside the British Embassy compound today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

There have been daily solidarity protests in Britain, including those led by the Irish Brigade¹ in London amid general mass media silence but the arrest of Greta Thurnberg today on ‘terrorism’ charges may bring a focus on the hunger-strikes for a change.

Today also The National newspaper revealed that Barclay’s had asked the British Government to ban Palestine Action and already the question is being asked: How is it that was not admitted by the Government when Huda Ammori took the Palestine Action banning to judicial review?

(*Greta Thurnberg about to be arrested earlier in Central London*). Photo source: *Internet*)

The rally today, like that outside the British Embassy last week, was organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, while another solidarity rally in Dublin last week but on College Green, in the City Centre, was organised Communities for Palestine.

*The ‘corpses’ in the road outside the British Embassy compound today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

The chants led outside the Embassy today included the usual ones heard on Palestine solidarity marches, including those referencing the Intifada, the occupation of Ireland and the Irish-language Saoirse don Phalaistín! But there were also new ones and additions to older slogans.

A new Four, Five and Six was added to a previous only One, Two and Three: One – We are the people; Two – We won’t be silenced; Three – Stop the bombing now, now, now! Four – Free our people; Five – Free our land; Six – Kick Zionism out, out, out!

Some other changed and new chants included: One, Two, Three, Four – Support the Filton 24! Five, Six, Seven, Eight – Israel is a terrorist state. We are all Palestine Action! Victory to the hunger-strikers! Brick by brick, wall by wall – all the colonies will fall!

Slogans also castigated British Government collusion in the Israeli genocide, Irish state collusion through militarisation of Shannon Airport and Gardaí collusion through their defence of the British Embassy.

*Numbers of Gardaí and one of their vehicles actually inside the British Embassy compound today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

On two occasions the MC asked demonstrators to line both sides of the road outside the Embassy, which is one of the main Dublin routes from and towards the South. Passing traffic frequently sounded their horns in solidarity, passengers often signing thumbs-up or with clenched fist.

But at one point, most of the demonstrators occupied the road, blocking traffic in each direction. The Gardaí moved quickly to break this up and were soon violently shoving demonstrators off the road, one in particular screaming with wild eyes so that he was twice seen restrained by colleagues.²

However part of the northbound road remained occupied in front of the Embassy entrance and at this point a new group of protesters arrived and, unpacking white curtain material, began to squirt red paint on it, then to lie down in the road under the material like massacre victims.

A number of speeches were made during the event and later a man called the crowd to remember also the 1981 hunger strikes in Ireland, for which he sang the Joe McDonnell³ Ballad, with its wonderful chorus lines: You dare to call me a ‘terrorist,’ while you look down your guns!⁴

Another man recounted the story told by Bobby Sands⁵ of the caged lark which would not sing for its captor and how that bird came to represent Sands himself, before reciting a poem of an Irish migrant in London in anguish as Bobby Sands lay dying.

*The ‘corpses’ were moved from the road to immediately in front of the British Embassy compound today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

The current hunger-strikes are sometimes referenced as “the first coordinated hunger strikes in Britain” since those of the Irish Republicans in 1981. Of course, those strikes were not in Britain but in occupied Ireland and therefore currently part of the United Kingdom.

There are important differences of course. The Irish Republican hunger strikers were convicted, albeit by special non-jury courts, of armed resistance to British occupation; the current hunger strikers have not yet even been tried and none of the charges against them include armed action.

And the motivation of the Palestine Action accused is purely internationalist solidarity against a regime committing daily massacres in a programmed genocide.

Nevertheless, the British ruling class may yet come to regret the day they permitted anti-Zionism to become so strongly linked to anti-British colonialism, and anti-genocide internationalism so closely linked to the memory of Irish colonial resistance.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1An ad-hoc broad Palestine solidarity organisation composed of Irish migrants and diaspora in London.

2This may possibly be the same Garda who was seen wildly striking with his baton and pepper-spraying peaceful participants at a Palestine solidarity march to Dublin Port some weeks ago.

3One of the Ten hunger strike martyrs of 1981.

4And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns!
When I think of all the things that you have done:
You have plundered many nations, divided many lands,
You have terrorised their people, ruled with an iron hand –
And you brought the stain of terror, to my land.

5Bobby Sands relinquished his elected post of Officer Commanding the Republican male prisoners in Long Kesh in order to lead the hunger strikes of 1981. On 5^th May he was the first of the Ten to die.

REFERENCES

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25716637.barclays-urged-john-swinney-crack-palestine-action/

THE CHIEF CAUSE OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE WORLD

On December 21, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-Fascism, Censorship & Witch-hunting, Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Mass Media Criticism, Massacres, Middle East, Palestine, Political Analysis, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

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 19^th 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 20^th 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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FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bondi_Beach_shooting

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/bondi-beach-attack-how-western-allies-are-enabling-netanyahus-grotesque-logic

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.

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

4American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israeli Zionist lobbying organisation providing funding to most US Congress and Senate elected members.

5 https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2019/01/12/a-partial-history-of-jewish-alternatives/

6 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/one-third-american-jewish-teens-say-they-sympathise-hamas-israeli-government-poll-shows

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.

8e.g. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/professor-david-miller-fired-after-israel-lobby-smear-campaign and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/mccarthyite-backlash-response-to-criticism-of-israel-alarms-rights-groups

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.

11Manchester-born and raised Eli Schlanger, in media manipulation often paired with Matilda Britvan, the 10-year-old girl victim of the massacre (for example https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ckgk391yzm7t and https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/15/what-we-know-about-the-victims-of-the-bondi-beach-terror-attack and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUE4IXCk5g)

12 https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/bondi-beach-attack-how-western-allies-are-enabling-netanyahus-grotesque-logic

1 3https://www.aph.gov.au/-/media/Estimates/legcon/bud2425/AGD/11_Anthony_Albanese_issues_strongest_condemnation_yet_of_anti-Israel_slogan_from_the_rier_to_the_sea.pdf and a broader piece on the use of the massacre to embed Zionist defence in Australian society https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/federal-antisemitism-plan-marks-the-death-knell-of-the-public-sphere/

STRONG IRISH SUPPORT AS ELBIT HUNGER-STRIKERS REACH CRITICAL POINT

On December 19, 2025December 23, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Britain, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, irish history, Middle East, PalestineLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

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 5^th 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 Palestine* *rally from behind the main bannercalling for solidarity with the hunger-strikers on College Green, facing Trinity College Saturday 13 June. (Photo:*Rebel Breeze*)*

On Wednesday afternoon, in almost incessant rain, a large crowd protesting outside the British Embassy in Dublin heard calls from a variety of speakers (independent Palestine solidarity, Irish Republican, Socialist TD Paul Murphy) to save the hunger-strikers’ lives.

The chairperson of the rally repeatedly referred to the building as “the colonial British Embassy” and led chants in solidarity with the hunger strikers, with Palestinian prisoners of Israel and with Irish Republican prisoners in both administrations.

*Section of protest rally at main entrance British Embassy (the actual building is set back from the road) on Wednesday 17 June. (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)*

Referring to the Labour Party MPs laughing at Jeremy Corbyn’s pleas for the hunger strikers, she reminded participants of their cheering the 1916 execution of Connolly⁶ and dubbed the police “Lackeys of imperialism” as they tried to prevent demonstrators climbing up along the railings.

The slogans were not only of humanitarian concern but also of solidarity, of rage at the genocide in Palestine, of memory of Irish struggle and continuing British occupation. Among chants of hunger striker solidarity at least two speakers voiced the Republican slogan Tiocfaidh ár lá.⁷

The hunger-strikers’ demands are release on bail, a fair trial, deproscription of their organisation and closure of Elbit factories. The State would claim fair trials and as their period in detention has far exceeded the normal length even for those refused bail, could easily at least release them on bail.

The problem at issue for the British State is that conceding at all risks undermining their according terrorist status to the organisation (which postdates the arrests), a status already in serious danger.

And they need that to stamp out resistance to their genocide collusion, which they perceive as essential to their imperialist system. In that sense a concession in Britain now would have more impact than would have had to the hunger strikers in the colony in 1980 and 1981.

On the other hand, the State’s repression has brought more and more people into the struggle and has exposed the roles of the media, police, judiciary and the Labour Party. Now, the hunger-strikes are helping to draw Palestine solidarity feeling alongside Irish anti-colonial sentiment.

After some time at protest rally some demonstrators mount the wall to display their flags over the railings towards the British Embassy building, set back from the road on Wednesday 17 June. (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1Led by the Defend Our Juries civil rights organisation.

2A broad and growing section of the Palestine solidarity movement in London that has been leading the Kneecap court case music solidarity sessions and the hunger-strikers’ solidarity actions there.

3 https://www.thenational.scot/news/25701679.mps-laugh-minister-rejects-call-meet-hunger-strikers/

4 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/18/palestine-action-hunger-strikers-are-dying-in-prison-uk-doctor-warns

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.

7Irish language, meaning “Our day will come.”

SOURCES & USEFUL LINKS

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/18/palestine-action-hunger-strikers-are-dying-in-prison-uk-doctor-warns

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/palestine-action-hunger-strike-prison-b2887068.html

New York protest includes Irish, Middle East Eye: