Upcoming Events

National | Anti-War / Imperialism

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Mar 29, 2024 00:04 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
The evidence that the Gaza casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Health Ministry (now over 32,000) are wildly inflated continues to mount. Mark Zlochin looks at what the proportions of male and female UNRWA workers tell us.
The post Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Don't be fooled by the 'Britain is growing' fairytales, says David Craig. Any 'growth' is accounted for by the hike in the benefits bill and in civil servants' pay and a heap of other unproductive deficit spending.
The post Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Britain is Growing’ Fairytales appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
Climate Change: The Movie, the new film by Martin Durkin, should be shown at every school in the country to disabuse anxious young people of the idea that we're in the midst of a 'climate emergency'.
The post Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Alan Shatter's Road to Damascus?

category national | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis author Thursday June 03, 2010 23:16author by Raymond Deane - IPSC (in a personal capacity) Report this post to the editors

A Zionist TD changes his tune

At a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs on 3d June, über-Zionist Alan Shatter TD (Fine Gael) caused some jaws to drop when he expressed some unexpected opinions on Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

When it comes to the issue of Palestine, meetings of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs (JCFA) could truly give the impression that all Irish political parties are left of centre. Apart from the inevitable unthinking obeisance to the shibboleth of a "two-state solution", representatives of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, The Greens, Labour and independents alike often seem to be singing from a hymn-sheet composed by the Ireland Palestine Solidary Campaign.

Given the ongoing inaction on any but a rhetorical level by the Irish government, it would be a mistake to overrate the importance of such consensus, but it is nonetheless something unique among European parliaments.

I attended the JCFA's meeting on 3d June. Originally, this was to have seen the Israeli Ambassador answer questions on the murderous hi-jack of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla by Israeli commandos in international waters, but Mr Evrony politely bowed out. His place was taken by the imperturbable Shane Dillon, mate on board the Challenger 1 which was intercepted by Israeli commandos at the same time that they slaughtered at least 9 passengers on board the Turkish cruiser Mavi Marmara. Shane was "deported" from Israel, a country he had not sought to visit, on 1st June.

Shane started proceedings by giving a quiet and eloquent account of the sequence of events from the moment the Israeli state terrorists boarded the Challenger 1 to the moment of his "deportation", pointing out for the umpteenth time that the implements found on the Mavi Marmara and designated as "weapons" by the Israeli army - knives, steel rods, a sledge-hammer - were part of the normal equipment of any seafaring vessel.

One after the other the august members of the Committee welcomed Shane back and congratulated him on his courage. Dr Rory O'Hanlon (FF) called Israel's actions "a symptom of an underlying cause", viz, the Israeli blockade of Gaza that everybody - even Billy Timmins TD (FG) - seemed to agree was illegal, and which was defined by Michael D. Higgins, TD, as "collective punishment". Michael D. pointed out the significant fact that even An Taoiseach Brian Cowen had described it as illegal. Senator David Norris berated the Israeli spin-machine that "is wheeled out even in this small country of ours", pointed out that Hasidic Jews in London had demonstrated against the Zionist state and in favour of Palestinian rights and that the Freedom Flotilla included 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, and criticised Ireland's vote in favour of Israel's accession to the OECD and our government's repeated failure to call for suspension of the EU/Israel trade agreement. He astutely pointed out the irony of Israel's interdiction of the importation of cement for reconstruction in Gaza, while Irish cement, provided by multinational CRH, is used for constructing Israel's illegal Apartheid Wall. Aengus O'Snodaigh TD (SF) called on the government not to proceed with its plan to purchase bullets from Israel Military Industries. Senator Mark Deary(Greens), from whose home town of Dundalk the Irish ship MV Rachel Corrie sailed (it is still en route to Gaza), made a truly moving speech of homage to the motives and ideals of the Free Gaza Movement.

So far, so more or less predictable. However, throughout the proceedings one Committee member remained ominously silent, apart from a burst of chat to his neighbour during the contribution of his old sparring-partner David Norris. This was Alan Shatter TD (FG), a man whose role-model sometimes seems to be his US colleague (they are both lawyers) and namesake, the mouth-foaming Zionist Alan Dershowitz. Finally, when chairman Dr Michael Woods (FF) had asked if there were any more comments or questions, Mr Shatter made his contribution.

Denying "the widespread view" that he was "myopic" on the question of Israel/Palestine, Mr Shatter went on to express his myopic - or indeed blind - views on the links between Hamas and Iran, Hamas's opposition to something called "the peace process" (which doesn't exist), and the sterling virtues of Fatah, which calls for a secular two-state solution, and "President" Abbas, who would be assassinated were he to visit Gaza, unlike Deputy Shatter, who was there last year and somehow escaped assassination.

However, I'm cheating. This was, in effect, a postscript to the main burden of Mr Shatter's intervention, which began with the astounding words "I oppose the blockade of Gaza". In my notes I was about to write "support" when I suddenly realised what he had said. He went on to describe Israel's lethal actions against the Mavi Marmara and its passengers as "the consequences of an ill-conceived policy" that was "politically and humanly counter-productive." He expressed his hope that the Rachel Corrie would be allowed bring its aid cargo to Gaza, and that all crossings to Gaza would be opened.

Now, many people will react to this with "who cares what Alan Shatter says?" This is a phrase I have frequently used myself, and in all probability will use again. However, I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of such a dramatic change - not of heart - but of perspective on the part of an intractable and irrational Zionist, a man who in many other respects (and this is a difference between himself and Dershowitz) is rational and even humane in his views. This change, I hope and believe, is a symptom of a fundamental loss of confidence at the core of support for Israeli intransigence and belligerence.

The deaths of the 9, or 19 or 99 victims of Flotilla 13, the "elite" Israeli naval unit that botched the Mavi Marmara operation, may not have been in vain if this is true. However, Zionism has in the past reconstructed itself repeatedly after what seemed like irreversible setbacks (Israeli reaction to the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, world reaction to the 2006 Lebanon war, etc.). It is up to the worldwide activist community - which has never been more united, even if this is "unity in disarray"! - to ensure that this is not a transitory moment. Our governments - and I include the Irish one, embedded as it is in Atlanticism and the EU's "common foreign policy" - will be eager to ensure the opposite; we must remain metaphorically and literally on the streets until words are followed by actions, Zionism goes the way of South African Apartheid, and the Palestinian people gain their long-deferred self-determination.

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   Wonders And Signs     opus diablos    Fri Jun 04, 2010 23:00 
   hardly shattering news     anti-semanticism    Sat Jun 05, 2010 00:07 
   Small Wonder.     Jew    Sat Jun 05, 2010 21:29 
   hahahahaha     stfu    Sun Jun 06, 2010 00:49 
   Reply     donlylemore    Sun Jun 06, 2010 01:19 
   Alan Shatter     Rachel    Sun Jun 06, 2010 03:23 
   EARLY DAYS     opus diablos    Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:39 
   beware the Zionist in humanist clothing     Zionism makes me want to vomit    Sun Jun 06, 2010 13:15 
   SORRY???????     opus diablos    Sun Jun 06, 2010 14:01 
 10   Shatterering News .     Sceptic    Sun Jun 06, 2010 14:04 
 11   NO NEED     opus diablos    Sun Jun 06, 2010 14:18 
 12   Opus     you haven't got a clue    Sun Jun 06, 2010 14:53 
 13   read his words again     NOT shattering News    Sun Jun 06, 2010 15:05 
 14   LAND G'BUY,sceptic.     opus diablos    Sun Jun 06, 2010 23:55 
 15   'humanly'??     anti-semanticism    Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:36 
 16   Gymnocryptosemancrobatics     opus diablos    Tue Jun 08, 2010 21:52 
 17   cut down on the hooch     anti-s_______________    Wed Jun 09, 2010 02:32 
 18   Ta for the feedback     opus diablos    Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:32 
 19   Martin     Anti-Semanticism    Wed Jun 09, 2010 12:04 
 20   Sorry, anti-     opus diablos    Wed Jun 09, 2010 14:23 
 21   RE: IMHO     anti-semanticism    Wed Jun 09, 2010 16:09 


Number of comments per page
  
locked We are currently not accepting any more comments on this article.
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy