There is reality and then there is Pallywood creating fake narratives that Israel is using hunger as a weapon. Maybe Hamas needs to stop threatening to murder anyone who cooperates with Israel in distributing food aid.
Certainly the entire food delivery situation is not optimal -- however it is a outrageous stretch to claim Israel is deliberately using hunger as a weapon. The primary problems in Gaza are distribution, looting and theft of the food by Hamas.
Israel calls EU's accusations it is using Gaza hunger as weapon of war 'outrageous'
“There is no restriction on the amount of food and water that is allowed to be delivered into the Gaza Strip,” government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told reporters in Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-791820
Israel rejected as “false” and “outrageous” European Union High Representative Josep Borrell’s claim it was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
“There is no restriction on the amount of food and water that is allowed to be delivered into the Gaza Strip,” government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told reporters in Israel.
“We tried to better the mechanism of aid distribution across the Gaza Strip,” she said, noting that the trucks entering Gaza have excess capacity and that the backlog of aid is on the Gaza side of the border.
“The [distribution] mechanism has not been functioning as it should because they [it] was reliant on Hamas,” she said.
Heinrich spoke after Borrell delivered a blistering attack on Israel for its conduct in Gaza during a speech he delivered to the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday in which he said that in Gaza, “starvation” was used as a “weapon of war.”
“We are facing now a population fighting for their own survival,’ Borrell said as he painted a dire picture of the impact of the war in Gaza using Hamas data.
More than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the war, while 1.8 million people have been displaced, and another half a million people are “on the brink of starvation,” Borrell said. Israel has stated that over 13,000 of the Gaza fatalities are combatants.
Israel's allies assert hunger crisis in Gaza, send aid by land and sea
He spoke as the international community, including Israel’s strongest allies, the United States and Great Britain, have asserted that there is a hunger crisis in Gaza. The United States has pushed to open Gaza’s air and sea space for the delivery of aid and has pressured Israelis to open additional land crossings into the enclave.
“Humanitarian assistance needs to reach Gaza, and the European Union is working as hard as it can to make this possible,” Borrell said.
He blamed Israel for the humanitarian crisis, noting that at issue was not “a natural disaster. It is not a flood. It is not an earthquake. It is man-made.
“And when we look for alternative ways of providing support – by sea or by air – we have to remind that we have to do it because the natural way of providing support through roads is being closed, artificially closed,” Borrell said.
“Let humanitarian support flow into Gaza. Continue asking – and more than asking – Israel not to impede humanitarian to go through the natural way, which is by road,” Borrell stated.
He appeared to compare Israel to Russia when he said, “When we condemn this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza.”
Borrell also spoke in support of the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which is the main service provider for Palestinian refugees. Israel is working to close the agency after finding that at least 12 of its staff members had participated in the Hamas-led October 7 invasion of Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed and another 253 were taken hostage.
Israel has also said that at least 190 of its staff members are connected to Hamas.
Borrell pushed back at criticism by UNRWA’s opponents that by recognizing as refugees the descendants of those Palestinians who fled from Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, it was creating a permanent and expanding class of refugees.
“Let me remind you something,” Borrell told the UNSC. “UNRWA exists because there are Palestinian refugees. It is not a present to the Palestinians; it is an answer to their needs. UNRWA exists because first, there were Palestinian refugees. We won't make these refugees disappear by making UNRWA disappear. They will still be there.
“In fact, there is only one way to make UNRWA disappear: making those refugees citizens of a Palestinian state that coexists with an Israeli state. Almost everybody agrees on that, but how can we make this solution a reality?
“There is no magic solution. But maybe there are credible ways to try to achieve it. The two-state solution,” Borrell said.
Yawn....... Israel attacked by Hamas
- Thread starter themickey
- Start date
A speech that sent shockwaves from Washington to Jerusalem
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN Fri March 15, 2024
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on March 12. Craig Hudson/Reuters/File CNN —
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s warning that Israel risked becoming a “pariah” and his call for new elections marked a momentous moment in modern US-Israel relations.
Schumer’s rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday contained extraordinarily strong language for a senior US politician criticizing the Israeli government. It was all the more remarkable coming from the New York Democrat who has a long record of staunch support for the Jewish state.........
.......................
Only a 'shock' (think blasphemy) because someone in authority decided publicly not to kowtow to jewish propaganda for once. Such is the strong grip of the jewish lobby on western thinking.
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN Fri March 15, 2024
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on March 12. Craig Hudson/Reuters/File CNN —
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s warning that Israel risked becoming a “pariah” and his call for new elections marked a momentous moment in modern US-Israel relations.
Schumer’s rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday contained extraordinarily strong language for a senior US politician criticizing the Israeli government. It was all the more remarkable coming from the New York Democrat who has a long record of staunch support for the Jewish state.........
.......................
Only a 'shock' (think blasphemy) because someone in authority decided publicly not to kowtow to jewish propaganda for once. Such is the strong grip of the jewish lobby on western thinking.
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Since the beginning of the war in Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the United States and Iran have reassured each other that neither was seeking a direct confrontation, a stance conveyed in messages they passed through intermediaries.
Washington wanted Iran to rein in its proxies to stop the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the targeting of American bases in Iraq and Syria. Tehran, in turn, wanted the Biden administration to deliver a cease-fire in Gaza.
Twelve journalists dead in eight days of war
By Rachael Dexter, Reuters and Associated Press
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle...-gaza-20231014-p5eca2.html?post=p55bjn#p55bjn
A dozen journalists have been killed in the eight days since the Israel-Gaza conflict began - the deadliest week in the region in 30 years according to a global press freedom body.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, founded in 1981 by a group of US correspondents, said this weekend that it was collating reports of all journalists “killed, injured, detained or missing in the war, including those hurt as hostilities spread to neighbouring Lebanon”.
Among its growing list of casualties and injured are local media reporters and those with international agencies Reuters, Al Jazeera, and Agence France-Press.
Iraqi Reuters photographer Thaer Al-Sudani, who was injured by Israeli shelling, attends the funeral procession of his colleague videographer Issam Abdallah, killed in the same shelling, in his hometown of Khiam, southern Lebanon. Credit: Bilal Hussein
Ten Palestinian journalists have been confirmed dead, one Israeli journalist has been confirmed killed, and a Beirut-based journalist has also been killed during a shelling attack in southern Lebanon according to CPJ.
Two others are missing and eight are injured. In the same period, the conflict claimed more than 3,200 lives on both sides and resulted in many thousands of injuries.
A funeral for Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was held yesterday in southern Lebanon.
Abdallah was killed while working with other journalists near the village of Alma al-Shaab, close to the Israeli border, where the Israeli military and Lebanese militia Hezbollah have been trading fire.
An Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon. Six other journalists were injured in the incident.
Mourners carry the body of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah on Saturday. Credit: Associated Press
“CPJ emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
“Journalists are making great sacrifices across the region covering this important conflict. Measures to ensure their safety must be taken by all parties to stop this deadly and heavy toll.”
Most moral army y'all. Also, these rulings is probably how the UN cops out from ruling Gaza a genocide.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...r-un-report-2024-03-13/?utm_source=reddit.com
ISTANBUL, March 13 (Reuters) - An Israeli tank killed Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon last year by firing two 120 mm rounds at a group of "clearly identifiable journalists" in violation of international law, a U.N. investigation into the Oct. 13 incident has found.
The investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), summarized in a report seen by Reuters, said its personnel did not record any exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon for more than 40 minutes before the Israeli Merkava tank opened fire
"The firing at civilians, in this instance clearly identifiable journalists, constitutes a violation of UNSCR 1701 (2006) and international law," the UNIFIL report said, referring to Security Council resolution 1701.
The seven-page report dated Feb. 27 said further: "It is assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident. The reason for the strikes on the journalists is not known."
‘He’s lost my vote’: Many Irish Americans turn against Biden over Gaza war
A series of protests on St Patrick’s Day points to the threat Biden faces from the loss of a key vote in swing states.
A pro-Palestine group marches in the 'St Pats for All' Parade, an inclusive alternative to the official city parade, in Queens, New York, on March 3 [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
By Delaney Nolan 17 Mar 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/17/does-biden-face-the-loss-of-the-irish-vote
One evening in 2004, when John Francis Mulligan, a US-born Irish citizen, was in the West Bank, a stranger asked him to walk her to a funeral.
It was after curfew in Nablus, and Palestinians weren’t allowed out on the streets. A young man had been killed earlier that day, and because of religious beliefs, his family needed to bury him within 24 hours, Mulligan recalls. But if they went outside, the Israel armed forces “would open fire on them for violating curfew”.
The dead man’s mother asked Mulligan: “Can you march with us? Can you stand at the front with our family? Because they’re not gonna shoot you, you’re white … I just need someone, literally, to stand with me.’”
This moment – the struggle to bury the dead in peace – hit home for Mulligan, 54, who went to primary school in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in the late 1970s.
“It felt, to me, very much like going into political funerals in the north of Ireland, where helicopters would be overhead – in that case, it was the British Army. And here it was the Israeli army,” he says. “It really resonated.”
Mulligan points to these parallels as part of the reason he is rallying with other Irish Americans in the US to support Gaza.
Leaders from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are meeting Biden this weekend. First Minister Michelle O’Neill met Biden on Friday, telling him “the world watches on in horror at the genocide of the Palestinian people,” and urging him to work towards an immediate ceasefire and sovereign Palestinian state.
But only Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar will attend the St Patrick’s Day White House ceremony on March 17, where he will present President Biden with a bowl of shamrocks, in a token of friendship, as per the decades-long tradition. But the annual ceremony and meeting between the taoiseach and Biden promises to be unusually tense this year, as a growing chorus of voters – both within Ireland, and among the Irish American diaspora – voice outrage over Biden’s support for the war on Gaza.
“I can recognise colonial oppression, colonial state violence,” because of a childhood in Ireland, says Mulligan. Now, in Palestine, “they’re dehumanising people. They’re criminalising resistance, criminalising the complete population,” and using “starvation as a tactic” as the British did in Ireland during the Great Hunger.
“It’s the same exact playbook happening in Palestine.”
John Francis Mulligan says that after spending his formative years in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, ‘the starvation of Gaza, the blocking of aid – it’s something I really recognise’ [Courtesy of John Mulligan]
A ‘jaw-dropping’ network forms
Cuán McCann, an Irish stick fighting coach in Baltimore whose family emigrated through Ellis Island, New York, generations ago, says he’s been stunned by how rapidly a network of Irish Americans has connected around support for Palestine.
“Some folks are in touch with organisers in Ireland, others are chatting through social media, many are talking to friends and siblings,” explains McCann, who has almost 20 years of experience organising for advocacy and protests. He calls the rapid and organic nature of the network-building “jaw-dropping”, adding that “every time I have a conversation, it leads to three more with three other people.”
Ireland has long been one of Palestine’s foremost Western supporters: The country was the first EU member to endorse a Palestinian state, and after October 7, Irish lawmakers were among the first in the West to call for a ceasefire. The Irish public’s support is even more robust than their politicians: About 80 percent of Irish people believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and many have called for a boycott of the White House meeting. In light of this fierce support, an Israeli minister recently told Palestinians to “go to Ireland or the desert”.
And so as Biden continues to support Israel’s military campaign, the Irish public has largely turned on him. In November, a mural of Biden in his ancestor’s hometown was spattered over with red paint along with the words “Genocide Joe”. Irish Member of European Parliament (MEP) Clare Daly addressed recent remarks directly to “Butcher Biden” in a fiery speech, thundering, “The ancestors of the Ireland that you claim to be from disown you. Keep our country out of your mouth.”
Now, Alison O’Connell, a lead organiser with Irish Americans for Palestine, says her group has a chance to be effective “because Biden talks so much about his Irish heritage”. Last week, O’Connell delivered a letter in person to the Irish embassy, asking them not to meet Biden as usual. “The energy that comes up to St Patrick’s Day – people know this is our moment to at least make some kind of statement,” O’Connell adds.
This week, protests against the White House meeting are planned in at least seven states and in multiple cities, including New York, St Louis, Washington-DC, Minneapolis and Albuquerque.
Alison O’Connell, lead organiser with Irish Americans for Palestine, protests for Palestine during the St Patrick’s Day March in Washington, DC [Courtesy of Alison O’Connell]
Trouble at the polls
On March 3, Mike Doyle, a teacher in Brooklyn who is fourth-generation Irish, marched in the “St Pat’s for All Parade” in Queens, New York, a long-running alternative to the official New York City parade, the oldest and largest St Patrick’s Parade in the world. Some groups hoisted signs and banners for a ceasefire in Gaza, and Doyle recalls that as they walked through the historically Irish neighbourhood of Sunnyside neighbourhood, “pretty much the whole street was cheering for us and shouting, ‘Ceasefire’!”
As the election approaches, Irish Americans who object to Biden’s support of Israel have said the plan is to make their voices heard not only at protests, but also at the polls.
McCann voted for Biden in 2020, but says he will vote for “uncommitted” in Maryland’s primary, a vote held in May to choose the state’s Democratic presidential candidate.
O’Connell notes that her father, once a Republican, voted for Biden in 2020, but is now undecided.
In an “Irish Americans for Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Kick-off” meeting on Friday, Biden told attendees that he needed Irish Americans to win in November. The swing states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Pennsylvania have the most Americans of Irish descent in the country – #1, #5, and #6 “most-Irish” respectively.
Some have blamed “insufficient attention to Irish-American communities”, at least in part, for Clinton’s 2016 loss to Trump.
“I just don’t understand how he can defend the bombing of hospitals, of universities, 900,000 children internally displaced,” says Mulligan. “He’s lost my vote, certainly. He would’ve had it before,” Mulligan adds, “But this went beyond the line.”
A pro-Palestine group marches in the ‘St Pats for All’ Parade in Queens, New York, on March 3 [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
The ‘St Pats for All’ Parade is an inclusive alternative to the official city parade and is supported by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
For others, Biden support still strong
Brian O’Dwyer, vice-president of the Irish-American Democrats Political Action Committee (PAC) and the Irish for Biden campaign, likewise stressed the importance of the Irish vote, saying there is “no question” it is one of the few remaining swing votes in the US.
“Biden won the presidency in 2020 in large part because of the Irish vote in Pennsylvania and Michigan,” which both voted for Trump in 2016, O’Dwyer says, adding that those states “certainly will be targeted in this upcoming election”.
But O’Dwyer says Irish-American Democrats remain “very supportive of the way President Biden has handled his support for Israel”. When asked about the Irish Americans who’ve protested and objected, O’Dwyer backtracks somewhat: “Of course, there’s a shift in the last few years, weeks, days. That’s become very apparent.”
O’Dwyer says that in order to hear from Irish-American voters, “this time of year, we’re meeting regularly with members of the community,” both virtually and in person. He clarified that the PAC has not done polling on the issue.
He added that while “there certainly are a number of people” who’ve brought up concerns over Gaza, “from what I’m hearing from the broader community, they think the president’s position is exactly right.” Speaking just hours after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an end to Netanyahu’s rule, O’Dwyer agreed with the Senator, calling Netanyahu “the major impediment to peace … We all think it’s time for him to go.”
Irish- and Jewish-American protesters outside Rep. Pat Ryan’s office hold the Irish tricolour flag on March 2 in Newburgh, New York [John Francis Mulligan/Al Jazeera]
‘Palestine frees us all’
McCann, a registered Democrat who says he works with Irish Americans in more than 30 states, called O’Dwyer “willfully out of touch with the actual sentiment of our communities nationwide”. He estimates more than 90 percent of Irish Americans he speaks with support a free Palestine.
Asked about current US policy in Gaza, Matt Carthy, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Irish lead opposition party Sinn Fein, wrote in an email, “Quite simply the US is on the wrong side of history. They must stop funding and arming Israel while it remains in gross violation of international law.”
Sinn Fein Party President Mary Lou McDonald is in the US this week. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Biden was getting things “badly, badly wrong”. McDonald is meeting with US leaders including Schumer and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib.
Carthy also notes that “we have a real sense that public opinion there has shifted, notably within the Irish-American community, who rightly have seen parallels between the fate of their ancestors and what the Palestinian people are currently enduring”.
Doyle also feels the Democratic Party establishment is “misgauging, certainly the younger people” who don’t support Israeli occupation.
“That’s not what contemporary Ireland looks like,” he says. “It’s anticolonial. It’s increasingly secular. It advocates for human rights and liberation. I think there’s a lot of Irish Americans who would gladly identify with that. In fact, the widespread interest this month as folks, young and old, have started to assemble as Irish Americans for a Free Palestine demonstrates just that – it really embodies the spirit of ‘Palestine will set us all free,’ as it gives us a chance to lean into our Irish heritage and our values as people of conscience.”
Source: Al Jazeera
A series of protests on St Patrick’s Day points to the threat Biden faces from the loss of a key vote in swing states.
A pro-Palestine group marches in the 'St Pats for All' Parade, an inclusive alternative to the official city parade, in Queens, New York, on March 3 [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
By Delaney Nolan 17 Mar 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/17/does-biden-face-the-loss-of-the-irish-vote
One evening in 2004, when John Francis Mulligan, a US-born Irish citizen, was in the West Bank, a stranger asked him to walk her to a funeral.
It was after curfew in Nablus, and Palestinians weren’t allowed out on the streets. A young man had been killed earlier that day, and because of religious beliefs, his family needed to bury him within 24 hours, Mulligan recalls. But if they went outside, the Israel armed forces “would open fire on them for violating curfew”.
The dead man’s mother asked Mulligan: “Can you march with us? Can you stand at the front with our family? Because they’re not gonna shoot you, you’re white … I just need someone, literally, to stand with me.’”
This moment – the struggle to bury the dead in peace – hit home for Mulligan, 54, who went to primary school in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in the late 1970s.
“It felt, to me, very much like going into political funerals in the north of Ireland, where helicopters would be overhead – in that case, it was the British Army. And here it was the Israeli army,” he says. “It really resonated.”
Mulligan points to these parallels as part of the reason he is rallying with other Irish Americans in the US to support Gaza.
Leaders from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are meeting Biden this weekend. First Minister Michelle O’Neill met Biden on Friday, telling him “the world watches on in horror at the genocide of the Palestinian people,” and urging him to work towards an immediate ceasefire and sovereign Palestinian state.
But only Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar will attend the St Patrick’s Day White House ceremony on March 17, where he will present President Biden with a bowl of shamrocks, in a token of friendship, as per the decades-long tradition. But the annual ceremony and meeting between the taoiseach and Biden promises to be unusually tense this year, as a growing chorus of voters – both within Ireland, and among the Irish American diaspora – voice outrage over Biden’s support for the war on Gaza.
“I can recognise colonial oppression, colonial state violence,” because of a childhood in Ireland, says Mulligan. Now, in Palestine, “they’re dehumanising people. They’re criminalising resistance, criminalising the complete population,” and using “starvation as a tactic” as the British did in Ireland during the Great Hunger.
“It’s the same exact playbook happening in Palestine.”
John Francis Mulligan says that after spending his formative years in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, ‘the starvation of Gaza, the blocking of aid – it’s something I really recognise’ [Courtesy of John Mulligan]
A ‘jaw-dropping’ network forms
Cuán McCann, an Irish stick fighting coach in Baltimore whose family emigrated through Ellis Island, New York, generations ago, says he’s been stunned by how rapidly a network of Irish Americans has connected around support for Palestine.
“Some folks are in touch with organisers in Ireland, others are chatting through social media, many are talking to friends and siblings,” explains McCann, who has almost 20 years of experience organising for advocacy and protests. He calls the rapid and organic nature of the network-building “jaw-dropping”, adding that “every time I have a conversation, it leads to three more with three other people.”
Ireland has long been one of Palestine’s foremost Western supporters: The country was the first EU member to endorse a Palestinian state, and after October 7, Irish lawmakers were among the first in the West to call for a ceasefire. The Irish public’s support is even more robust than their politicians: About 80 percent of Irish people believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and many have called for a boycott of the White House meeting. In light of this fierce support, an Israeli minister recently told Palestinians to “go to Ireland or the desert”.
And so as Biden continues to support Israel’s military campaign, the Irish public has largely turned on him. In November, a mural of Biden in his ancestor’s hometown was spattered over with red paint along with the words “Genocide Joe”. Irish Member of European Parliament (MEP) Clare Daly addressed recent remarks directly to “Butcher Biden” in a fiery speech, thundering, “The ancestors of the Ireland that you claim to be from disown you. Keep our country out of your mouth.”
Now, Alison O’Connell, a lead organiser with Irish Americans for Palestine, says her group has a chance to be effective “because Biden talks so much about his Irish heritage”. Last week, O’Connell delivered a letter in person to the Irish embassy, asking them not to meet Biden as usual. “The energy that comes up to St Patrick’s Day – people know this is our moment to at least make some kind of statement,” O’Connell adds.
This week, protests against the White House meeting are planned in at least seven states and in multiple cities, including New York, St Louis, Washington-DC, Minneapolis and Albuquerque.
Alison O’Connell, lead organiser with Irish Americans for Palestine, protests for Palestine during the St Patrick’s Day March in Washington, DC [Courtesy of Alison O’Connell]
Trouble at the polls
On March 3, Mike Doyle, a teacher in Brooklyn who is fourth-generation Irish, marched in the “St Pat’s for All Parade” in Queens, New York, a long-running alternative to the official New York City parade, the oldest and largest St Patrick’s Parade in the world. Some groups hoisted signs and banners for a ceasefire in Gaza, and Doyle recalls that as they walked through the historically Irish neighbourhood of Sunnyside neighbourhood, “pretty much the whole street was cheering for us and shouting, ‘Ceasefire’!”
As the election approaches, Irish Americans who object to Biden’s support of Israel have said the plan is to make their voices heard not only at protests, but also at the polls.
McCann voted for Biden in 2020, but says he will vote for “uncommitted” in Maryland’s primary, a vote held in May to choose the state’s Democratic presidential candidate.
O’Connell notes that her father, once a Republican, voted for Biden in 2020, but is now undecided.
In an “Irish Americans for Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Kick-off” meeting on Friday, Biden told attendees that he needed Irish Americans to win in November. The swing states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Pennsylvania have the most Americans of Irish descent in the country – #1, #5, and #6 “most-Irish” respectively.
Some have blamed “insufficient attention to Irish-American communities”, at least in part, for Clinton’s 2016 loss to Trump.
“I just don’t understand how he can defend the bombing of hospitals, of universities, 900,000 children internally displaced,” says Mulligan. “He’s lost my vote, certainly. He would’ve had it before,” Mulligan adds, “But this went beyond the line.”
A pro-Palestine group marches in the ‘St Pats for All’ Parade in Queens, New York, on March 3 [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
The ‘St Pats for All’ Parade is an inclusive alternative to the official city parade and is supported by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs [Mike Doyle/Al Jazeera]
For others, Biden support still strong
Brian O’Dwyer, vice-president of the Irish-American Democrats Political Action Committee (PAC) and the Irish for Biden campaign, likewise stressed the importance of the Irish vote, saying there is “no question” it is one of the few remaining swing votes in the US.
“Biden won the presidency in 2020 in large part because of the Irish vote in Pennsylvania and Michigan,” which both voted for Trump in 2016, O’Dwyer says, adding that those states “certainly will be targeted in this upcoming election”.
But O’Dwyer says Irish-American Democrats remain “very supportive of the way President Biden has handled his support for Israel”. When asked about the Irish Americans who’ve protested and objected, O’Dwyer backtracks somewhat: “Of course, there’s a shift in the last few years, weeks, days. That’s become very apparent.”
O’Dwyer says that in order to hear from Irish-American voters, “this time of year, we’re meeting regularly with members of the community,” both virtually and in person. He clarified that the PAC has not done polling on the issue.
He added that while “there certainly are a number of people” who’ve brought up concerns over Gaza, “from what I’m hearing from the broader community, they think the president’s position is exactly right.” Speaking just hours after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an end to Netanyahu’s rule, O’Dwyer agreed with the Senator, calling Netanyahu “the major impediment to peace … We all think it’s time for him to go.”
Irish- and Jewish-American protesters outside Rep. Pat Ryan’s office hold the Irish tricolour flag on March 2 in Newburgh, New York [John Francis Mulligan/Al Jazeera]
‘Palestine frees us all’
McCann, a registered Democrat who says he works with Irish Americans in more than 30 states, called O’Dwyer “willfully out of touch with the actual sentiment of our communities nationwide”. He estimates more than 90 percent of Irish Americans he speaks with support a free Palestine.
Asked about current US policy in Gaza, Matt Carthy, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Irish lead opposition party Sinn Fein, wrote in an email, “Quite simply the US is on the wrong side of history. They must stop funding and arming Israel while it remains in gross violation of international law.”
Sinn Fein Party President Mary Lou McDonald is in the US this week. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Biden was getting things “badly, badly wrong”. McDonald is meeting with US leaders including Schumer and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib.
Carthy also notes that “we have a real sense that public opinion there has shifted, notably within the Irish-American community, who rightly have seen parallels between the fate of their ancestors and what the Palestinian people are currently enduring”.
Doyle also feels the Democratic Party establishment is “misgauging, certainly the younger people” who don’t support Israeli occupation.
“That’s not what contemporary Ireland looks like,” he says. “It’s anticolonial. It’s increasingly secular. It advocates for human rights and liberation. I think there’s a lot of Irish Americans who would gladly identify with that. In fact, the widespread interest this month as folks, young and old, have started to assemble as Irish Americans for a Free Palestine demonstrates just that – it really embodies the spirit of ‘Palestine will set us all free,’ as it gives us a chance to lean into our Irish heritage and our values as people of conscience.”
Source: Al Jazeera
Good to see the Irish which is a quite strong religous country are not sucking up to the Israeli bullshit.