Solidarity Saturday #25

GAA Palestine, Palestine Action, ICE & Masks, The Epstein Files, New Left Party

Solidarity Saturday will be published every fortnight and will feature articles, reports or listens that I have found interesting. We are bombarded with information through our TVs, computers and phones. I will share only a few links, not to add to the overload, but to curate a few that stimulate thought and contribute to our Solidarity Not Charity community.
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GAA Palestine

The decision by the Irish Government to refuse visas to kids from Palestine who were looking forward to visiting Ireland to play Gaelic games is disgraceful. As The Journal reported.

GAA Palestine had plans in place for 47 Palestinians to travel here, including 33 children aged between 9 and 16 years of age.

A total of 152 families in Ireland had signed up to host the group as they were to travel around Ireland.

The tour was due to kick off on 18 July, and it had garnered major support from Irish host families who were to welcome the Palestinians into their homes, and from clubs that have been fundraising to help finance the trip.

Organisers behind the tour have said that they are “devastated” and they have disputed that the department did not have all the documentation required to approve the visa applications, which were made in mid-May.

Stephen Bowen, Director of Amnesty Ireland said on X that the department’s decision was “beyond belief”.

Along with others I signed a letter to the Irish Consul General in Scotland, which was handed in to the Consulate on Friday. The diaspora is about more than business lunches or photo ops. So we urge the Consul to intervene and accurately reflect our views on this heartless decision. It is not too late to change course and do the right thing.

Here is a short video of the letter being handed in and explaining why it is necessary.

People in Ireland can sign a petition demanding the kids be granted visas here.
People anywhere can find GAA Palestine on social media and amplify their message and offer solidarity with the great work they do.

Text of the letter.

Palestine Action

Last week the UK Government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group. A serious and dangerous development. Western States know the genocide is hugely unpopular and they have given up even trying to manufacture consent. No amount of propaganda can cover up what is happening. So western States, from Germany to the UK, are imposing genocide and endless wars on their populations. By ignoring them, by silencing them through the courts or legislation to ban or limit protests. Make no mistake they will use force on their own populations to support Israel or any other proxy.

The best piece I read on Palestine Action was from Ronan Bennett. A great writer and now quite famous as the creator of TV series Top Boy. Writing in Prospect, Ronan says:

Genocide appears to fall into what in Ireland we call “the doer, not the deed” syndrome. We shouldn’t get distracted by what’s being done, even if it’s mass killing. The important thing is who’s doing it. If it’s our guy, it can sometimes be a little embarrassing, especially if he gets caught or says the quiet things out loud, but it’s generally nothing to get too worked up about.

Putin is not our guy so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine Starmer was quick to urge the creation of a “Nuremberg-style” tribunal for war crimes. Netanyahu, however, is very much our guy, so obviously that means there’s no need for any kind of tribunal.

He provides much needed context for the discussion:

Back in 1974, in response to an IRA bombing campaign in England that left several dozen dead and maimed (mostly) civilians, the Labour government under Harold Wilson rushed through parliament the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA) with the promise that this draconian legislation would be repealed when it was safe to do so. The act was never dropped, but instead strengthened.

We can’t know if the PTA saved any lives, but we do know that it wrecked many, as innocent Irishmen and women were railroaded through the courts in a climate of state-induced moral panic. They spent years in prison before eventually being released by the Court of Appeal, among them the defendants in the notorious Guildford Four, Birmingham Six and Maguire Seven miscarriage of justice cases. (As a footnote, in 1977 I was myself arrested under the legislation and held without charge in Armley and Brixton prisons while appealing an “exclusion order” with which the government hoped to deport me back to Belfast; I won the appeal, with the help of Harriet Harman, who was at that time the legal officer of the National Council of Civil Liberties, now Liberty.)

In 2000, Tony Blair revised the “temporary” provisions of the 1974 legislation, granting the police even greater powers of arrest and surveillance. During the debates, Jack Straw, a home secretary notorious for being influenced by the security services, blithely reassured MPs that the new super-charged act would not be used against protestors. (Another footnote: Harriet Harman, by then a “Blair babe”, MP and Solicitor General, voted for the new act. Starmer is not the first to walk this deeply rutted walk of shame, from upholder of the right to protest to authoritarian enforcer. Historically, Labour has cloaked its clampdowns in the language of public order and national security—from the 2000 Terrorism Act to the introduction of Asbos and extended detention without trial.)

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ICE and Masks

ICE agents look like cartel foot soldiers.

On a related but different topic there was a bit discussion about people wearing masks last week. Partly due to the online obsession with Kneecap but more consequentially because ICE agents are wearing them apparently routinely. This piece in the Los Angeles Times is useful. I suspect, like most things, we’ll see more of this here. Already it does happen, particularly in the North of Ireland, that cops conceal their identity. It will become more common as the State ratchets up the militarisation of policing.

Many civic leaders across metro L.A. say the practice of masked federal agents has sowed confusion in their communities.

“We are receiving questions like, ‘How can I know if the masked man detaining me is ICE or a kidnapper?’ And, ‘Who can protect me if a masked man with a gun refuses to identify himself?’” Burbank Mayor Nikki Perez said recently.

In Burbank, fears of impostors turned into reality when two masked men stopped a woman outside the Mystic Museum in Magnolia Park, Perez said.

According to the Burbank Police Department, the men got out of a white SUV, stopped a woman and, impersonating federal immigration agents, asked her for her papers. Thanks to witnesses, Perez said, the woman was able to leave without further harassment or, worse, kidnapping.

“What did not leave our community, though, or our residents, is a newfound sense of fear and uncertainty of safety for everyone in our community, regardless of their immigration status,” Perez said.

The Epstein Files

Michael Tracey is always interesting to read. I try and limit my time online but it is impossible not to have noticed the (latest) outrage over the ‘The Epstein Files’. Tracey has an interesting take on the subject. Which might, as he says, make him unpopular in certain circles, but make his take on ‘The Epstein Humiliation’ essential to consider.

Commenters have been bitterly outraged everywhere I’ve appeared lately. All I can say is that my views are the product of authentic reasoning, to the best of my ability. The “Epstein Files” bait-and-switch was a genuine humiliation, on many levels, and so I’m trying to most rationally identify the culprits. If you want to be mad at anyone, I’m recommending to be mad at the hucksters who whipped up an anticipatory delirium to advance their own political and commercial interests.

New Left Party