Irish support for Palestine

Frankly, virtually the whole world has support for the Palestinians. As naother colonized people I suppose their support might be more intense.

 

Booo, Ireland. They have a lovely island, but a terrible history with regard to terrorism, their support of the Palestinians in Gaza (and by extension, Hamas) is another sad chapter. I enjoyed Northern Ireland more when I made my visit.

 

In Irish Republican parts of Belfast and Derry there are a lot Palestinian flags and murals, along with pro ETA (Basque liberation). I haven't read the article in the link but from what I know part of the reason why is that the the IRA and PLO were allied and trained together during the 1970's. Back then liberation groups like those saw themselves as part of a global anti-colonialism, and to a less extent Marxist, movement.

NSFW language.
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Considering they have been under the boot of the English for hundreds of years you might understand their history.

 

I could be wrong, but there seems to be a semi-global resurrection of the ideology, that all liberation or independence movements are united in their struggle against a new colonialism in the 21st century. This is evident in the remarkably similar rhetoric coming out of Brazil, Venezuela, Iran and Palestine, not to mention leftist movements in America and across Europe. I guess this hardly comes as a surprise.

 

Not to defend the Irish here, but in all fairness their support seems to be more broad in the political sense, ie support for the Palestinian cause, as opposed to specific support for terrorism or even Hamas.

From what I understand, the PLO was never really of the Hamas mold, but more of a secular nationalist movement. To this day, the PLO seems far more interested in a Palestinian state than an Islamist one. Not sure I can say the same about Hamas, as they clearly have a pan-Arab and Muslim agenda.

 

A bunch of the pro-Iran English language websites that I read are run by or have major contributors that are of mixed Irish/Iranian ancestry.

I guess that jives with rocketsjudoka's observation, as the time line would have them presumably being conceived in the 1960's/1970's.

But the much more simple explanation why all of Europe supports the Palestinians is that there are more loud Muslim voices in Europe as opposed to Jewish ones. In the US, of course, the opposite is true. I mean, England used to be a big supporter too, but in some parts of the country, given the well organized Muslim community, to say something in support of Israel would at this point be political/professional suicide, just as Helen Thomas committed professional suicide in the US a couple of weeks ago.

 

Your analysis might hold true in some countries, but there are many countries in the world that are do no not have many Muslims or Jews and they seem nearly unanimous in decrying Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. How do you account for this?

 

I'm not sure which countries you are talking about. Maybe if you could supply some specific examples.

 

Interesting, this is the first I've heard of a mixed Irish / Iranian community.

That may be true in other parts of Europe but I doubt that is true in Ireland especially Northern Ireland, where the greatest support for the Palestinians is, as there are probably only a handful of Muslims there.

 

I was listening to an interview with Oliver Stone the other day about his new movie on South American Leftists leaders and he said basically the same thing. I'm not sure if this a resurrection or another variant. The idea of global Marxism took a severe blow after the fall of the Soviet block while in Islamic countries it seems like liberation groups are turning now towards radical Islam as a unifying ideology. While people like Chavez still espouse the rhetoric of Marxism I don't think it has the reach like it did in the 70's when groups in places as diverse as Peru, Ireland, Rhodesia, Palestine, and Sri Lanka all claimed to be fighting under a united Marxist front.

On a side note there are ex-IRA members and IRA splinter groups that are fighting for or consulting for all sorts of insurgency groups. My understanding is some of these people still believe in a global struggle while for others all they know how to do is insurgency and are selling their services.

 

How come there is no outrage that Jordan is occupying Palestine?

 

Because the term Palestine is just a name. The British labeled the whole thing as Palestine but that really doesnt mean anything. Transjordan was an individual territory that pre-dated the British mandate. (it was a named part of the Ottoman Empire)

So yeah, no one gives a damn that the British grouped it with Palestine (which too was a separate state of the Ottoman Empire) The British are quite possibly the worst place to look when it comes to territorial names.

 

I really wish the world would grow a pair of balls and decide what the best solution to this conflict was in interests of Israelis, Palestinians, and the rest of the World...most importantly the rest of us.

Freaking Israel and Palestine owes the world a lot, because their squabble over a piece of dirt has cost the world untold in financial and human costs.

We should just make a decision and say, this is the way it's going to be - if you oppose it, we're not going to give you any money or support. Without money or support, BOTH Israel and Palestine would retrogress into the 16th century. Palestine is closer to be sure, but neither economy is exactly independent of foreign injection of capital.

Let's just have a panel made up of one person from every religion - A Jew and Muslim, and then a Hindu, Buddist, Christian, Taoist, Baha'i, Rastafarian, Animalist, Reiki, Witchcrafts, and an Atheist and lock them all up in a room until they come out with a unanimous decision.

Both Israel and Palestine could veto any of the individuals until one of each religion finally got through. Whatever their verdict would be final.

If Israel refused to go along, they'd get nuked by Iran. If the Palestinians refused to go along, we'd get Britain to nuke them. It doesn't matter of course, nuking one is as good as nuking the whole area. It'd be a final decision and that's that. The world would recognize it as such and all the maps would reflect that, and we'd support whichever side was defending it's territory.

Case closed.

 

OR...

Completely cut aid/funding to both these countries (except for humanitarian aid), and tell them there's no more help until a peace deal is in place.