Irish senator blasts Israel as ‘right-wing regime’ committing ‘criminal’ acts in epic rant
Source: Raw Story
In the video embedded below, openly gay Irish senator and international human rights activist David Norris spoke frankly about the ongoing conflict in Gaza. In his speech, Norris abandoned the normal Pro-Israel vs. Pro-Palestine dichotomy and attempted to address the changes in direction of Israel’s rulers.
Norris said that over time, Israel has fundamentally shifted its social and political orientation.
“I am not anti-Israeli, I am not anti-Semitic. I supported the state of Israel. In the forty years I have known the state of Israel and sometimes had a home there I’ve seen it completely changed,” he said.
“It changed from a left-wing socially directed country, to an extreme right-wing regime, that is behaving in the most criminal fashion and defying the world. Using — unscrupulously using — the Holocaust to justify what they are doing and it is time that rag was torn away from them,” Norris continued.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/09/irish-senator-blasts-israel-as-right-wing-regime-committing-criminal-acts-in-epic-rant
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mazzarro
(3,450 posts)
abovesobelow
(73 posts)The hypocrisy and contextual ignorance surrounding the ideological interpretations of this conflict really grind my fucking teeth!
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)I'm sorry, but using the relative freedoms enjoyed by one side in a conflict as some sort of justification is pretty lame. It's not any better than "we should go to war with (insert prdominantly Islamic-fundamentalist state here) because of the way they treat women/LGBT/etc". I may not support, for instance, the human and civil rights positions of countries like Russia, or Indonesia, but that doesn't mean that I think that it's justifiable for us to go to war with them to enforce social change (whcih ultimately has to come from within).
It also misses the crucial and important fact that much of the Palestinian resistance was in fact secular until Israel nurtured and encouraged the development of Hamas as part of a divide and rule strategy to undermine the secular Fatah.
2banon
(7,321 posts)
JI7
(89,244 posts)either.
Uncle Joe
(58,330 posts) Response to abovesobelow (Reply #2)
Name removed Message auto-removed
gtar100
(4,192 posts)thing and it takes away from your argument to stoop to that tactic.
alp227
(32,013 posts)and MIRT has the opportunity to escort that user too (since unanimously hidden posts get MIRT review, from what I've read).
happyslug
(14,779 posts)I wanted to see what the protest was about, but posting privledges had been revokled and that removes ALL comments.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)as a "Jew hater", I just want you to know that it's not working anymore.
JI7
(89,244 posts)kids even if those kids came from countries with horrible laws that treat others badly.
m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)pinkwashing is defined as a disingenuous effort by Israel apologists to use the country’s generally positive record on LGBTQ rights to distract attention from human rights abuses in Palestine.
http://www.pinkwatchingisrael.com/
JI7
(89,244 posts)and Saddam is a horrible dictator.
that's what your comment is pretty much saying.
the US deserved pearl harbor because blacks and other minorties did not have equal rights at the time.
JI7
(89,244 posts)another people.
do you think there are no gay palestinians ?
JI7
(89,244 posts)and cultural.
but there is no law that bans being gay and allowing for things like beheading and any other punishment.
Martin Eden
(12,860 posts)That phrase very accurately describes extolling the freedoms enjoyed by Israelis in the context of actions by the state of Israel which for decades have deprived Palestinians of freedoms and human rights while periodically killing large numbers of them including women and children.
7962
(11,841 posts)It makes as much sense as "black politician". None.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 9, 2014, 04:39 PM - Edit history (1)
And it is his bravery and integrity in that long fight, which gives his opinion quite considerable influence on the world stage. It was a very long fight, and he never gave up, eventually winning his case not only on behalf of gays in Ireland, but throughout the entire European Union!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Norris_%28politician%29
Campaigning and activism[15]
Norris took the Attorney General to the High Court over the criminalisation of homosexual acts. His claim was based on the fact that the law infringed on his right to privacy and that since the introduction of the Constitution of Ireland the law passed under British rule became repugnant to the constitution. The High Court ruled against Norris. He appealed his case to the Supreme Court of Ireland.[24] In 1983, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law by a three to two verdict.[24][25]
Having lost the Supreme Court case, Norris took his case to the European Court of Human Rights (See Norris v. Ireland). In 1988, the European Court ruled that the law criminalising same sex activities was contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular Article 8 which protects the right to respect for private life. The law was held to infringe on the right of adults to engage in acts of their own choice.[26]
The first and immediate thing about the European decision is the enlargement of dignity and freedom for gay people – but I think a decision like this enhances the dignity and freedom of all the people of Ireland because it pushes us towards a more tolerant and plural society.
– Norris's reaction to the European ruling, 1988.[5]
This law was repealed in 1993.
Norris has since then expanded his activism to a concept of "universal rights".
I did start out on that campaign [for homosexual law reform] but I found very quickly that the mechanism of discrimination was exactly the same against women, against ethnic minorities, against the handicapped, so I broadened out and this now is how I see things, very much so.
Norris represents the University of Dublin/Trinity College constituency in the Seanad as an Independent. He was first elected to the Seanad in 1987, and has been re-elected at each election since.[27][28]
7962
(11,841 posts)It just seems gratuitous to include it. Is every statement he makes going to include this fact from now on? It'd be like mentioning it if he spoke out against the war in Iraq.
I guess it may make sense to some, it just doesnt to me. Its not a big deal, I just dont see the need to point out someone being gay or anything else.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)He'd always be referred to as "former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin."
Same with Obama. After he leaves the Presidency, he'll forever after be known as the "former President, Barack Obama."
I for one, had no idea who he was, so the blurb was helpful.
7962
(11,841 posts)We're supposed to have gotten to the point where pointing out someones sexual orientation is not necessary.
Behind the Aegis
(53,936 posts)It is nothing more than a ploy and part of the agenda of those like him.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)Really?
Divernan
(15,480 posts)I hope I correctly assumed your sarcasm, and others will know my post is intended to join you in sarcasm
7962
(11,841 posts)Terrible analogy. Blacks and gays were born that way and never attacked people either. There was never a reason to oppress them.
Galraedia
(5,022 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)No occupation, no Hamas.
7962
(11,841 posts)Its been downhill for them ever since. You'd think they'd have figured it out by now. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)The Palestinians didn't have a choice in '47. They still don't have a choice.
7962
(11,841 posts)They instead chose to try push the jews out of the rest of it. They made the wrong decision and have been ever since. As I said, most of the other countries have accepted Israel since then, but the palestinians continue to choose to fight. And they will continue to lose. They could choose differently. And now even the Arab countries are abandoning their futile demands. Notice how there are no huge protest marches in most ME countries? How Egypt is the one trying to broker cease fires? Outlawing the muslim brotherhood? Saudi Arabia working WITH Israel when Iran is involved?
The palestinians should see the writing on the wall but they continue to bed down with the like of Hamas.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)I wonder what he thinks of Hamas abuse toward Gays and Women?
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)Status of homosexuality[edit]
Homosexuality is illegal within the Authority & many gays have been harassed for being homosexual. The Hamas-controlled Gaza strip has declared homosexuality punishable by death. Hamas cofounder Mahmoud Zahar has said, “You in the West do not live like human beings. You do not even live like animals. You accept homosexuality. And now you criticize us?”[60]
According to Shaul Ganon of the Israeli based gay rights group, Aguda, "The P.A.'s usual excuse for persecuting gays is to label them collaborators--though I know of two cases in the last three years where people were tried explicitly for being homosexuals,they were both beheaded." Hamas justifies beheadings, beatings, torture and killings of homosexuals with Islamic law or unjustly claim the Homosexuals are collaborators of the enemy. "It's now impossible to be an open gay in the P.A." Ganon says that Islamic law is the main justification for such treatment of homosexuals under the Palestinian Authority.[61]
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Absolutely NO documentation - you know little things like DATES, NAMES, etc.
There are different interpretations of Islamic law throughout the Muslim world, as to acceptance of homosexuality and the role of women in society. That in no way justifies silencing gay people or women from condemning Israel's decades long abuse and slaughter of Palestinians.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Not because of bombs , not because I'm Jewish but because I'm Gay.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)I asked the other poster and I'm asking you - please provide a single name and date of a homosexual killed in Gaza - and no fair counting the ones killed by Israelis.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Hamas, the militant and political group in the Palestinian Territories have said that they win the Palestinian Authority Parliamentary election, they would ban men and women dancing together and will strip gay men and women of the few rights they have in the territory that they have at present.
Dr Mahmoud Zahar (pictured), the groups leader in Gaza, in an article on an Arabic website condemned the rights that gays have in Israel and made it clear that he thinks that gays are perverts. “Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?”
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2005/10/10/hamas-say-gays-are-perverts-will-be-punished-if-they-win-elections/
( it's not difficult to find ,Hamas doesn't hide the fact they are a bigoted Gay hating homophobic sick wits )
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Step by meticulous step, let's go back to your post I replied to. You wrote: "I would not make it out of Gaza alive. Not because of bombs , not because I'm Jewish but because I'm Gay."
I replied, "You fail to provide a SCINTILLA of proof for your claim! I asked the other poster and I'm asking you - please provide a single name and date of a homosexual killed in Gaza - and no fair counting the ones killed by Israelis."
Totally ignoring my reasonable request for A SINGLE NAME AND DATE OF A HOMOSEXUAL KILLED IN GAZA (not counting ones killed by Israelis), what do you respond with?
A link to a post from 2009 - the math is simple - that's SIX YEARS AGO. Said link SPECULATES about what MIGHT happen if Hamas wins an election. And your linked article refers to "punishment" not execution or death. Further, since Hamas did win an election, and you fail to document a single actual killing of a homosexual by Hamas in Gaza at any time before or after said election, you have absolutely nothing to support your claim that you would be killed in Gaza because you are homosexual.
I have no doubt that if you were in Gaza during the current Israeli siege, you stand a very good chance of being killed - not because you are Jewish and not because you are homosexual, but because of the "hideous, sadistic, vicious and murderous Israeli land offensive in Gaza. I quote a man who grew up in an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Philadelphia. Ever heard of Noam Chomsky? He has been voted the world's top public intellectual.
Noam Chomsky on Israel’s Assault on Gaza and US Support for the Occupation
Chomsky grew up in a Ashkenazi Jewish family in Philadelphia. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus, and has authored over 100 books. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure, and was voted the "world's top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
In this interview with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales for Democracy Now!, he lays out chapter and verse how "hideous, sadistic, vicious and murderous (IN HIS WORDS) has been Israel's land offensive in Gaza. This is such a powerful piece, and leaves Israel without a shred of justification to hide behind.
Just a sample from midway through the interview - interviewer Juan Gonzalez quotes the Israeli rhetoric/claim that it no longer occupies Gaza. He refers to interviewing Joshua Hantman, senior adviser to the Israeli ambassador to the United States and a former spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Ministry. He quotes Hantman saying "Israel actually left the Gaza Strip in 2005. We removed all of our settlements. We removed the IDF forces. We took out 10,000 Jews from their houses as a step for peace, because Israel wants peace and it extended its hand for peace." Chomsky proceeds to blow this claim out of the water.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, several points. First of all, the United Nations, every country in the world, even the United States, regards Israel as the occupying power in Gaza—for a very simple reason: They control everything there. They control the borders, the land, sea, air. They determine what goes into Gaza, what comes out. They determine how many calories Gazan children need to stay alive, but not to flourish. That’s occupation, under international law, and no one questions it, outside of Israel. Even the U.S. agrees, their usual backer. That puts—with that, we end the discussion of whether they’re an occupying power or not.
As for wanting peace, look back at that so-called withdrawal. Notice that it left Israel as the occupying power. By 2005, Israeli hawks, led by Ariel Sharon, pragmatic hawk, recognized that it just makes no sense for Israel to keep a few thousand settlers in devastated Gaza and devote a large part of the IDF, the Israeli military, to protecting them, and many expenses breaking up Gaza into separate parts and so on. Made no sense to do that. Made a lot more sense to take those settlers from their subsidized settlements in Gaza, where they were illegally residing, and send them off to subsidized settlements in the West Bank, in areas that Israel intends to keep—illegally, of course. That just made pragmatic sense.
And there was a very easy way to do it. They could have simply informed the settlers in Gaza that on August 1st the IDF is going to withdrawal, and at that point they would have climbed into the lorries that are provided to them and gone off to their illegal settlements in the West Bank and, incidentally, the Golan Heights. But it was decided to construct what’s sometimes called a "national trauma." So a trauma was constructed, a theater. It was just ridiculed by leading specialists in Israel, like the leading sociologist—Baruch Kimmerling just made fun of it. And trauma was created so you could have little boys, pictures of them pleading with the Israeli soldiers, "Don’t destroy my home!" and then background calls of "Never again." That means "Never again make us leave anything," referring to the West Bank primarily. And a staged national trauma. What made it particularly farcical was that it was a repetition of what even the Israeli press called "National Trauma ’82," when they staged a trauma when they had to withdraw from Yamit, the city they illegally built in the Sinai. But they kept the occupation. They moved on.
And I’ll repeat what Weissglas said. Recall, he was the negotiator with the United States, Sharon’s confidant. He said the purpose of the withdrawal is to end negotiations on a Palestinian state and Palestinian rights. This will end it. This will freeze it, with U.S. support. And then comes imposition of the diet on Gaza to keep them barely alive, but not flourishing, and the siege. Within weeks after the so-called withdrawal, Israel escalated the attacks on Gaza and imposed very harsh sanctions, backed by the United States. The reason was that a free election took place in Palestine, and it came out the wrong way. Well, Israel and the United States, of course, love democracy, but only if it comes out the way they want. So, the U.S. and Israel instantly imposed harsh sanctions. Israeli attacks, which really never ended, escalated. Europe, to its shame, went along. Then Israel and the United States immediately began planning for a military coup to overthrow the government. When Hamas pre-empted that coup, there was fury in both countries. The sanctions and military attacks increased. And then we’re on to what we discussed before: periodic episodes of "mowing the lawn."
King_David
(14,851 posts)Hamas is among the most virulent homophobic regressive right wing Gay hating regimes .
Among Russia,Iran,Uganda,Zimbabwe etc
Hamas nor any other Gay hating sick regime gets a pass.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Do you live in an alternate universe where time runs in reverse?
The point is very simple. You rely on a link of speculation, said link published in 2005, which prophesied that if Hamas won an election in Palestine, that homosexuality would be, and I quote the exact word, "punished" ( not killed, as you earlier claimed). I pointed out that Hamas in fact won an election (2006) since that prophesy was made, and I asked you to provide me facts, i.e., names, dates of death, etc. of any homosexual killed in Gaza since then. In fact, let's make it easier for you - give me facts re any homosexual being punished in Gaza. Tried? Imprisoned? Exiled?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012600372.html
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 27, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 26 -- The radical Islamic movement Hamas won a large majority in the new Palestinian parliament, according to official election results announced Thursday, trouncing the governing Fatah party in a contest that could dramatically reshape the Palestinians' relations with Israel and the rest of the world.
In Wednesday's voting, Hamas claimed 76 of the 132 parliamentary seats, giving the party at war with Israel the right to form the next cabinet under the Palestinian Authority's president, Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah.
You refer to gay-hating, sick regimes as not getting a pass. Well, google conservative Judaism and homosexuality and you'll come across more than a few virulent, homophobic opinions and actions within your own religion/country. For one thing it wasn't until 2012 that a conservative seminary allowed gay students.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/gay-rabbis-approved-in-israel_n_1439936.html
JERUSALEM — The Conservative Jewish seminary in Israel says it will allow gays and lesbians to become rabbis, overcoming years of opposition by many of its own leaders and setting up a new point of contention between the movement and Israel's Orthodox establishment. The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with Israel's Conservative Jewish movement, announced it would begin accepting gay and lesbian rabbinical students in Jerusalem this fall.
Israeli law gives exclusive jurisdiction over the ordination of clergy, marriage and divorce to Orthodox rabbis, who generally consider homosexuality an abomination. The Orthodox rabbinate here has strenuously resisted inroads by the liberal streams, refusing to recognize their rulings, conversions or ceremonies as religiously valid.
The decision to ordain gay and lesbian clergy drew fire from the ultra-Orthodox community. "In my opinion, it's a grave mistake," said Shaar Yeshuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of the northern city of Haifa. "It's a violation of the Bible."
There was no formal comment from the chief rabbinate, but an official there, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that only the Orthodox chief rabbinate can ordain rabbis in Israel. Others "can perform ceremonies until the end of time, but they aren't valid," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to issue an official comment.
And from a comment to the above link: Once again, the chosen people turn their back on Jehovah's laws.
" ' And you must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing. (Lev. 18:22)
And here in the states, at a Los Angeles synagogue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/us/rabbi-takes-a-stand-for-gay-marriage-and-a-segment-of-the-congregation-rebels.html?pagewanted=all
Gay Marriage Stirs Rebellion at Synagogue
“To officiate a union that is expressly not for the same godly purpose of procreation and to call such a relationship ‘sanctified’ is unacceptable to a sound mind,” M. Michael Naim, an architect, said in an open letter to other Iranian members of the congregation. “Homosexuality is explicitly condemned in Scripture and has been categorically and passionately rejected by all classical Jewish legal and ethical thinkers as a cardinal vice in the same category as incest, murder and idolatry.”
___________________________________________________________________________________
And, for the record, I am in no manner a homophobe, witness my other posts in this thread. I disagree with conservative Judaism's long-standing and only very recently challenged portrayal of homosexuality in hostile and condemnatory terms. You used the term "virulent", and I quoted the above comments to show you that Jews also make "virulent" attacks on gays.
I suggest that you have a lot of work to do in your own country/religion to win full acceptance of gays. And I remind you, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Bigoted regime out there.
Nobody on DU supports these Gay hating regressive bigots and they are as far from progressive as possibly can be -- same category as Uganda and way worse than Russia.
Hate group , particularly a Gay hate group.
I don't care what fundamentalist Jews think about gays ... Gays are completely free in the Jewish state with all the rights of anyone else. Not so for Gaza where the regime actually HATES us.
The Jewish gay hating bigots can fuck off too I have no time for them.
As far as bigotry against Gays go Hamas is among the worst of the worst.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Israel is a shockingly racist country, where a member of the Knesset can stand up and call African refugees "a cancer in the body of the nation", and more than half of Jewish Israelis agree with him; where polls show that a majority of the public support overt discrimination against non-Jews and the imposition of an apartheid state if the West Bank is annexed; where politicians make speeches about the "demographic imperative" of maintaining Israel's character as a "Jewish state" and where Netanyahu, then finance minister, can boast publicly of the "positive effect" of reducing child subsidy being a reduction in the Arab birth rate.
Would you consider any country where such attitudes were common and widespread to be deserving of description as a tolerant liberal democracy? Can you imagine what would happen in, say, the USA if a Republican budget director boasted of reducing the black and Hispanic birth rate through budget cuts? He'd be out of a job before sunset. But in Israel? Comments like that pass unnoticed.
King_David
(14,851 posts)You gave up on Gays and Hamas?
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)and you can't say "Israel is a tolerant liberal society" and ignore the many and obvious examples of extreme racism that are completely out of the norm for such a society. I can't imagine the kind of racism by public officials, and as shown by opinion polls, a majority of the public, in the US, or the UK, or Canada, that's displayed routinely in Israel. And I'd say that the existence of such racism, not just among the public, but among the elected government, gives the lie to any claims of a "tolerant and liberal society".
King_David
(14,851 posts)Gay hating Hamas.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)"Hamas" is not the same thing as "Palestinians", and whatever the attitudes of Hamas' leaders to LGBT people, they don't justify the occupation, or the levels of anti-Arab racism in Israeli society.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Bravo
Needs explaining to lots here on DU.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)
seriously fucking SICKENING!
Laughing Mirror
(4,185 posts)Homosexuality is not illegal in Palestinian Authority, and has not been since 1951. The same as Jordan.
In Gaza, male homosexuality can get you a 10-year prison sentence, while female homosexuality is legal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory#Middle_East
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 9, 2014, 04:04 PM - Edit history (1)
I was in Dublin taking a summer CLE class on law of the European Union, and wangled a rare invitation to attend an emergency closed session of the Irish Senate (Seanad Eireann). That was indeed a privilege, since I was one of only 5 observers allowed to attend. At a break in the session, my sponsor took me to the pub for members/guests in Leinster House, the 18th century ducal palace where the Irish legislature meets. I was really honored to be introduced to Senator Norris, who came up to our table to discuss the impact of the proposed legislation on young gay men.
Norris is a former university lecturer at Trinity and a member of the Oireachtas(Irish parliament), serving in Seanad Éireann since 1987. He was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Ireland. Founder of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, he is also a prominent member of the Church of Ireland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Norris_%28politician%29
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abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)
2banon
(7,321 posts)
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,868 posts)What do the Irish know about being oppressed by a colonial power?
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)
whathehell
(29,050 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)Watch his impassioned speech to the Irish Senate yourself on Youtube.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)He may not have quite the online pulling power of President Higgins, but David Norris’s impassioned Senate speech on the Gaza crisis has already chalked up in the region of 250,000 views on YouTube.
That makes him by far the most successful Irish politician to appear on the global video-sharing site, easily beating the 98,000 views for fellow senator Fidelma Healy-Eames’ bizarre warning last February against so-called fraping (Facebook ‘rape’).
During his rousing address, Mr Norris described as shameful Ireland’s decision to abstain on a UN resolution that sought to investigate Israel’s military actions in Gaza as part of a collective EU decision.
He also condemned US President Barack Obama “for his utter inaction” in bringing about a peaceful solution and said he had “no doubt” that the recent Israeli attacks on schools had been deliberate.
Stevepol
(4,234 posts)looks at its own trampling on the rights of human beings, slaughtering them for example in Iraq, bringing "shock and awe" in the name of blind ideology, for no apparent reason other than just the love of watching bombs explode and other human beings die.
Governments of course can justify anything. Israel and the US are good at it, but no other country is far behind, given the right occasion.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)
Brigid
(17,621 posts) 2banon
(7,321 posts)
Centuries of brutal tyrannical rule from the "English" .. both Scotland and Ireland struggling for centuries to achieve independence, autonomy and freedom from crushing oppressive rule.
But the Irish most especially know a thing or two about brutal tyranny of their oppressors.
swilton
(5,069 posts)Here is Senator Averil Power
Divernan
(15,480 posts)The Irish Senate was called back into special session to address the current I/P bloodbath and particularly Ireland's abstaining from voting on a UN resolution. Specifically, The UN Human Rights Council voted to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate violations of human rights and it also condemned Israel for potential infractions of international law. Ireland abstained from this vote, which abstention went against the majority of Irish public opinion.
There is a brief shot at about 2'43" into the video of the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, sitting in the "hot seat" in the front of the Senate chamber. That is the person she's addressing. One of the great beauties of the Irish Senate, and one I had the privilege to personally observe at a different emergency closed session, is that the relevant Cabinet Minister for the topic under discussion, is required to sit in the front while any Senator who wishes to can address him directly, and basically, ream him a new one.
It's a beautiful sight to see. Imagine if we did that in our Senate. Imagine if then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld were to be publicly, personally, in-his-face, excoriated by senator after senator for Abu Ghraib and the his role in the US war on Iraq & involvement in Afghanistan - broadcast live.
As John Lennon said, imagine.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)Would have been epic!
Brigid
(17,621 posts) oberliner
(58,724 posts)In 2009 he expands at length on why Gaza is like the Warsaw Ghetto. He's been keen on such comparisons for a while. Can anyone produce one of his speeches where he speaks of his support of Israel in the period when he owned a home there?
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Others have done so, including liberal anti-occupation Jewish activists and the (Jewish) UN Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine.
And there have been other comparisons, of the situation of Palestinians in the West Bank to the conditions of South African townships under apartheid.
Rather than questioning whether everyone who makes such comparisons is an anti-Semite (which seems to be the common response), it seems to me that it would probably be significantly more useful to ask whether an Israel that engages in actions which invite such comparisons can reasonably be supported by anyone who considers themselves "liberal".
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He says that he used to support Israel and owned a home there. I'd be curious to know what the time frame was for that period.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Before the occupied territories, before the settlements, in the days when leftist students still idealised the kibbutz as a model of socialist cooperation.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He was in a long-term relationship with an Israeli during that time frame according to his Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Norris_%28politician%29
Presumably that would correspond with his time spent over there.
indepat
(20,899 posts)the world in the process. 
