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TPQ
Anthony McIntyre 🏴 I had been on the phone this morning to my friend Gerard when my son Ronan signalled for my attention. 

Brothers YNWA

I had seen the deep frown on his face while handling my own call as he was scrolling through his phone. I hung up and he asked if I had caught the news, which I hadn't, otherwise I would not have been on the phone nattering about books for so long. He told me Diogo Jota had died in a car crash in Spain along with his brother, André.

I had hoped there would be a punch line as a week ago he told me Xabi Alonso had fainted . . . after he had watched Trent Alexander Arnold defend during a Real Madrid training session. Respite was not to come. Peace of mind had lost all sense of bearing. There would be no rowing back from this one. The great Liverpool frontman was with us no more.

Despite being much more philosophical about death the older I get, the news left me reeling. I still struggle to take it in. Reading just a few minutes ago that the brothers' funeral will take place tomorrow it all seems to be moving at the pace of a Formula 1 race car rather than a hearse.

I spoke to my sister whose joy at being at Wimbledon centre court for the first time in her life was punctured by the news of the fatal crash in Spain. I also spoke with my friend Andrew whose company I had shared so often while watching Liverpool and Diogo Jota in the pubs of Drogheda and Dublin. Paddy, another companion on those pub match days, I could not reach as he is on a family holiday. I chatted with a friend, Tony in Limerick, whose son is a die hard Liverpool fan. It was that sort of day - a need to insulate against the shock by reaching out to fellow fans, just as rocked by the turn of events as I was. 

For all of us, the shared eager anticipation of the title defence beginning next month has evaporated. The range of exciting players brought in simply does not compensate for the one that has departed.  

An integral part of the Liverpool strike force Diogo Jota brimmed with talent matched by an acute instinct for goal. When he played there was always an expectation that he could turn a game around if it was not going Liverpool's way. Phenomenal in the air, lethal on the ground, Diogo Jota could deliver the goods for both Liverpool and Portugal.

The grief, anguish and vacuum that the passing of the brothers leaves is a burden unbearable for his family. His wife, a widow ten days after her wedding; his three children fatherless; his parents having lost both their children. Life's mirror has cracked and no matter how it is put together again, the reflection it gives off will never be the same.

Since news of the brothers' deaths began filtering through fans of Liverpool and others started to make their way to Anfield. Not for the first time has the ground become a veritable shrine adorned with floral tributes. Many fans have now taken to calling on the club to decommission the No 20 shirt, that worn by the late striker. Whether that happens or not Diogo Jota will be forever Liverpool. His untimely death while at the height of his powers as a Liverpool player will guarantee that. Unlike the many legends that have played for Liverpool FC, he never left the club. He never shall.

Eternal Dreamless Sleep Diogo Jota.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Diogo Jota ⚽ Forever Liverpool

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Seven Hundred And Eleven

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ That is a good question at a time when homelessness across the island of Ireland is on the increase. 

Not that it is a problem for the good folk of the bourgeoisie who will be in attendance at the 153rd Open Championship Golf Tournament at Portrush in the occupied Six-Counties. This is an event when the normally boringly attired middle-classes dress up in regalia which would not be out of place in a ‘Rupert the Bear’ children’s comic and cartoon. In fact one pair of trousers worn by these golfing buffs are actually called ‘Rupert Trousers.’ These were once popular among the working-class youth during the nineteen-seventies but once the bourgeoisie hijacked them for golf the prices rocketed. Another set of legwear are named ‘Clown Trousers’ and both look very trendy for the lovers of the Four Iron, Woods, and Drivers. Many traditionalists may ignore the fashion and will stick to the ridiculous looking ‘Plus Fours’, a pair of trousers (I think) which above the knee has a bulge extending outwards similar to those worn by SS Officers in the German Third Reich. The 153rd Open Championship advertises accommodation ranging from a starting week price of £1,399 which is the very basic probably afforded by those who have not quite reached the position at work of having their own office, though highly likely they may have the key to the management’s toilet! These people may be permitted to be ‘Caddies’ for ‘Sir’ on one of the ‘Tee-Times’ amateur courses open to those who have booked and away, for a short time, from watching the likes of Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods, Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy, and other high flyers of the sport.

The main issue here is, given the housing crisis in the Six-Counties, why these houses offered at extortionate prices and are left vacant for much of the year, why they cannot be used to provide accommodation for those seeking a roof over their heads? I watched and listened to a report for BBC1 “Northern Ireland” ‘Sunday Politics’ by Maria McCann on these properties being rented out for the week of the Golf Championship. I could not believe what I was watching and listening to. One woman who wished not to be named or have her face shown due to her job and, no doubt fear of losing it, said; “Tenants are asked to vacate their homes for the week so tourists, I think related to the golf, can be accommodated”. I could not believe my ears: does this mean somebody, a family, can be legally thrown out of their homes for the duration of this golfing pantomime and have no rights to say no? As they are moving into some temporary accommodation, a family friend if they are lucky, the bourgeois golf enthusiasts are moving in, probably affording a condescending smile if they happen to pass the hapless real tenants being evicted, for their golfing holiday? That is the picture I was getting! Imagine being waiting for a home for some years and when you finally get one you are told in no uncertain terms by your landlord:

time to move out for a week, don’t care where you go but just go, because I can charge these golfing tourists a small fortune which I am not allowed by law to charge you for rent. 

Communities Minister in the Stormont Assembly – with about the power of Greater Manchester Council but they like to call themselves a government which is a joke – Gordon Lyons said regarding the situation surrounding homelessness and those seeking to buy their first home; “I am willing to consider all the options and it is important we look at everything first before we make any decisions”. He was not questioned about the obscenities of properties laid idle for much of the time then rented out for tens of thousands of pounds for a week to the wealthy golfing fraternity.

It is true areas of the north coast like Portrush are picturesque places to live and that Golf has brought in much revenue but at what price the ordinary people? John Manley, Political Correspondent for the Irish News said:

the north coast is a victim of its own success and we heard Gordon Lyons who acknowledged there is a need to deal with the situation but there was a lack of urgency in his approach.

That is an understatement John, though you were on TV and language restrictions I understand apply. From where I was sitting Gordon Lyons could care about as much for solving or even addressing the housing situation as I have of intending to cross the Grand Canyon on a highwire! The fact that a few people can own such properties, leave vacant for much of the year, charge rents to those who can afford and then even these are not safe because when the golfing tournament comes to town they are booted out for the duration of said tournament thus allowing golf enthusiasts a week’s accommodation. By any stretch of the imagination this must be wrong, not only within the perimeters of capitalism, though it is very much a symptom of that economic system, but the Stormont Assembly consists of people who are critical of capitalism and would, for some reason best known to themselves, call their position socialist. I have not heard one word of criticism about this kicking tenants out so golfing nerds can have some fun for a week from the “Government of Northern Ireland” as they call themselves!

There can be no doubt the northern coast of Ireland is, like many other areas of the island, very picturesque and a nice place to live. The Sunday Politics programme certainly highlighted ‘the question of home ownership with half the properties in places like Ballycastle lying empty for half of the year by their owners’. Manley added “people who grew on the north coast will never have a home of their own”. This is, under the present system, perfectly true but more important for me is these homes are empty while people, prepared to pay rent, if not buy, are denied this right. Perfectly good houses just laid bare while folk have nowhere to live, a fucking disgrace. If Stormont is, as they claim they are, a government even of sorts surely this situation of golf before homes, demands urgent attention by those in so-called power and addressing quick.

In the Twenty-Six-Counties we have an equally bad housing crisis. Couples are waiting to buy their first home, or at least get a mortgage in which case the building society or mortgage company own the property until such time as the borrowers can pay off the mortgage, usually by the time they reach old age. Thousands of homeless people are trying to rent and for various curable reasons they, like those seeking a mortgage, cannot get a roof over their heads. One preventable reason is small availability of housing stocks which are low due to construction of houses have not met year on year protracted figures. The state must begin a building programme and forget about the private sector and the programme should be nationwide. One annoyance for those seeking housing in the Twenty-Six-Counties they do not have to witness middle-class golfing nerds renting houses which should be reserved for them. There are plenty of other empty buildings, disused shops, empty office blocks all of which could be fitted out as dwellings for rent. Such a building programme undertaken by the state, not the private sector, would provide shopfitters, electricians, carpenters, plasterers, and labourers employment. Tell the private owners of the buildings they have two months to utilise the properties or they will be taken into state ownership by compulsory Order, no purchase, just an Order of the State. Large budgets should be put aside for local authorities to carry out the refurbishments by the government in the Dail. 

The housing crisis is an all-Ireland problem from the coast on the North of Ireland to the streets of Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork and many other cities and towns. Both administrations must act and act quickly starting right now or the shallow arguments of the far-right will gather more and more traction. Lack of housing is one of the fascists' arguments which, shallow as they are, sound feasible to the mass of people. Instead of blaming the true cause of homelessness the far-right blame immigration which, with a cursory glance, will be seen is no cause at all, just scapegoating thus moving blame away from the ruling-classes and their political representatives.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Golf Or Homes?

 

A Morning Thought @ 2718

 

A Morning Thought @ 2717

Muiris Ó Súilleabháin ✍ "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use” -Soren Kierkegaard

I must confess, I am somewhat conflicted by the current outcry over Irish language rap band Kneecap. In my last contribution to TPQ on the subject (Kneecap) I suggested that “na buachailli” would gloriously ride on the crest of the publicity wave created for them by the DUP and the TUV until the “wheels fell off”.

Not content with letting the quality of the group’s music become the instrument of their own downfall, the British Government and the Prime Minister have interjected to create a mega tsunami of publicity around 3 guys from the north who until recently occupied a small space in an even smaller niche market.

There is a small juvenile part of me that says fair play to them for putting it up to the Brits and the “orangies” (which is not very Republican) and there is a big part of me that welcomes “the lads” using their now global platform to speak out in support of Palestine and against the latest instalment of the Israeli genocide.

There is also a more mature and reflective inner me that is entirely uncomfortable with their pronouncements on Hamas and Hezbollah and the “kill your MP” bunkum.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I fully support freedom of speech as outlined in the Universal Declaration, but I also recognise that there are situations where rights can compete and clash and where careful judgement needs to be exercised.

I do not suspect for one second that Kneecap support Hamas or Hezbollah or that they want people to kill their MPs. Also, I do not believe that anyone who listens to their music would take three drink and drug fuelled rappers at their word and follow through on what was nothing more than intoxicated bluster.

Therein lies my catch 22, I want to live in a rights-based society, I do not think that we can progress as a community unless we accept that all rights are universal and inalienable and that they apply to all members of the human family, even three guys from the north, held in affection by many in the CNR communities.

Their onstage bravado, however well-meaning in supporting an entirely legitimate cause, conflicts with multiple other articles in the Universal Declaration and allegedly with the law in the United Kingdom, which is where they made their pronouncements.

If the assertion is that Kneecap can say or do what they want on and off stage, and that somehow, they are “unequal before the law” (Article 7) then we are entering very dangerous territory. “The law is an ass” but the line of reasoning that loyalists do worse and that it is Israel who should be in the dock, ring hollow. The Met Police do not have jurisdiction in either the north or the International Criminal Court.

Contentions that the charges are politically motivated and a clumsy attempt to silence criticism of the Israeli onslaught against a defenceless population are without reservation true, but it is the duty of the police to investigate a complaint, the CPS to decide if a crime may have been committed and the duty of a jury to decide on guilt.

Those who attempted to create a false equivalence with the Birmingham Six and in one case Bloody Sunday are being disingenuous. The most contemporaneous case that warrants comparison is Gerry A vs the BBC.

The multiple sycophants who have nauseatingly heaped praise upon Adams for “putting manners” on an award-winning BBC programme that has exposed collusion, and British state violence for decades don’t seem to comprehend that freedom of speech extends to journalists also. Sinn Fein keen to portray themselves as “down with the kids”, have declared that they stand with both Kneecap and Adams. Sinn Fein, once again ostensibly ignorant to the fact that under their proposed changes to the hate crime legislation of 2024, Kneecap would have been prosecuted in the south.

To support Adams against the BBC is an inherent contradiction to the freedom of speech defence of Kneecap.

Adams, who had to prove that he had enough money in the bank to pay for the totality of the case’s legal costs (estimated to be circa £5 Million) took the BBC and Jennifer O’Leary to court to prevent them from exercising their right to free speech.

The multi-millionaire from Ballymurphy, did not strike a blow for freedom on behalf of the movement or the Irish people. Unlike many whom he led, Gerry had the considerable financial resources to hire the world’s leading defamation lawyer to challenge the BBC on his reputation.

The gist of his legal argument was that while yes, he May have had a reputation as being a senior member of the IRA (which he denied), his role in delivering the IRA ceasefire meant that he was entitled to a re-invented reputation. Gerry A, from here on in, must be referred to as Gerry the peace maker.

Just because someone has a past does not mean that they cannot have a future, was Trimble's mantra throughout the GFA negotiations and it is indeed a noble sentiment. Everyone deserves a second chance.

Unfortunately, there are many who entered the fray during the war who do not have the financial clout to purchase their reputation in Court. There are many men and women of character who would squirm at the opportunity to reinvent themselves, if it demanded a denial of their role in a just war. For people of character neither a grubby gratuity from the BBC or a eulogy that quite frankly no one will believe would be worth the shame of hearing the rooster crow. There is a considerable difference between reputation and character.

Adams took Spotlight to court for Adams’s sake, in much the same way that the Pro-Israeli lobby sought to have Kneecap silenced through spurious allegations. Both are opposed to freedom of speech, both can claim a pyrrhic victory in their own warped mentality, but neither is likely to remembered as they wish to be.

Reputation is what others think, character is what you know about yourself.

⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.

Kneecap Act Ⅱ

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Seven Hundred And Ten

Barry Gilheany ✍ The term “Palestinianism” has entered the mainly online world, especially in the Twitter or X sphere, as a bitterly contested term to describe the evolution and constituent elements of Palestinian identity. For supporters of the Palestinian cause like the celebrated exiled Palestinian scholar Edward Said. it is a statement of the “reassertion of Palestinian multiracial and multireligious history.” For its detractors, it represents a new version of antisemitism in which all the ancient, supposed ''evils'' of Jewry and Judaism are projected onto the State of Israel. To make sense of this intractable debate, it is necessary to understand the peculiar circumstances in which the notion of a Palestinian national identity came into being at the turn of the 20th century and how, through the twists and turns of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine later morphing into the Israeli/Palestinian one in the 20th and 21st centuries, it has assumed such a totemic signifier for wider geopolitical ideological contestation.

As an admittedly clunky term, Palestinianism, as the mantle claimed by Hamas, Fatah and other major Palestinian identified groups, is best understood as a movement, an ideology, and/or a belief system. At the outset, it is important to understand that the idea of a unified, independent Palestinian state did not evolve naturally from its history.[1] This statement could also be valid for the emergence of European nation-states and that of post-colonial independent states in the Global South. But the site of the Levant or Middle East at the confluence so many different civilisations and cultures poses particular questions for the study of the development of Palestinian identity.

In ancient times, Levantine states like Phoenicia (primarily modern-day Lebanon) and Syria consisted of independent city states like Tyre, Sidon and Byblos in Phoenicia or Damascus or Aleppo in Syria. The Phoenician cities were maritime hubs and separate entities, each governed by its own royal lineage, worshipping their specific pantheons and speaking dialectical variations. Even though they shared a common cultural backdrop marked by their unique alphabetic script and seafaring prowess, they never coalesced into a unified Phoenician nation. Syria was a melting pot of diverse thought and religious practices, from the Canaanites and Amorite to the later influence of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman and Byzantine empires. Damascus and Aleppo became epicentres of learning, trade, and power, each contributing to a multifaceted Syrian identity that was very heterogenous.[2]

While the Islamic Caliphates, from the Umayyad to the Abbasid and the Fatimid, brought a semblance of religious and administrative unity they did not erase the unique characteristics of each region.[3]

Palestine offers a particular conundrum in the quest for nationhood in the Levant. Since its population was comprised largely of Arabs who transcended the artificial boundaries imposed by the Anglo-French, Sykes-Picot arrangements for the Middle East in 1916 across Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, its path towards statehood was always going to be complicated, even more so by the Israel/Palestine conflict.[4]

Palestine has long been a meeting point of civilisations, religions, and empires – from the Byzantines and Romans to the Ottomans and the British Mandate. But its history is deeply interwoven with the Jewish people who according to biblical accounts settled in ancient Canaan. They established the kingdoms of Israel and Judea, contributing significantly to the region’s cultural and religious landscapes, such as the construction of the First Temple of Jerusalem. These kingdoms faced invasions and exile, but their legacies are integral to modern Judaism. The land underwent various phases of foreign rule, eventually becoming part of the Roman Empire "Syria Palestina" to distance from its Jewish roots.[5]

The idea of a unitary Palestinian state did not emerge evenly and naturally from its history. During the Ottoman Empire, for example, what is now called Palestine was administratively fragmented into different districts, integrated into a larger, relatively decentralised empire. Identity was often tied to locality – village, clan, or religious community – rather than a wider sense of national belonging. Therefore, any initial inertia towards statehood must be seen in the context of this historical backdrop marked by administrative fragmentation and a conglomeration of localised identities.[6]

The establishment of the British Mandate in the aftermath of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and their German allies in World War I introduced new terminologies and geographical units. [7]  Territories were redefined, borders were drawn, and identities were often externally imposed. The new geographical realities forced the local populations to navigate a spectrum of loyalties and identities which hitherto had been largely shaped by more immediate social and religious fabrics. While the Sykes-Picot Agreement provided a pathway to statehood for the new entities they brought into being be it the Hashemite dynasty forming new thrones in Jordan and Iraq or the unique confessional system institutionalised in Lebanon, Palestine’s Arab population found themselves in a less straightforward and more anomalous situation.[8]

For nationalism, as a concept and aspiration, was imported into Palestine as a response to external challenges, namely the British Mandate and the immigration of Jews making Aliyah to the homeland aspired to by the Zionist movement set up in the 19th century and then promised in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The resistance was not for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state per se but against the external forces that were destabilising the existing socio-political equilibrium.[9]

Contrary to the assertions of the Palestinian cause’s detractors, Palestinian national identity was not the artificial creation they claim of the USSR inspired formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1964. There is clear evidence of attempts at the formation of a Palestinian national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. In his book Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997), Rashid Khalidi describes the Arab population as having “overlapping identities” incorporating loyalties to villages, regions, a projected nation of Palestine, an alternative of inclusion in a Greater Syria, an Arab national project as well as to Islam.[10]

He documents active opposition by the Arab press to Zionism in the 1880s. He described the identity as organically developed due to the challenges of peasants forced from their homes due to Zionist immigrant pressure, but that Palestinian nationalism was far more complex than merely an anti-Zionist reaction.[11]

Unlike the unitary purpose and organisation of the Zionist movement, Palestinian leadership in the Mandate years was characterised by divisions along clan lines. A pivotal Palestinian religious and political figure in this era was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini who forged up to and during World War II an alliance with Nazi Germany, motivated by mutual antisemitic convictions. This alliance involved active collaboration such as propogandist radio broadcasts throughout the Arab world and even meetings between the Mufti and Hitler. [12] Not for the first time in their modern history, the Palestinian people were badly served by decisions taken by their leadership. Husseini’s embrace of Nazi ideologies exacerbated the already existing animosity towards Jews which fed into the cycles of communal violence which had their denouement in the three-cornered civil war between Zionist and Arab militants and the British Mandate authorities prior to the latter’s withdrawal in 1947. It also provided a potent generational propaganda weapon for Israel.

The Arab Israeli war of 1948 and the resultant trauma of the Nakba (the flight or expulsion of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs) is the transformative moment in the development of Palestinian identity and consciousness. It has to be borne in mind that the primary objective of the Arab states that attacked Israel in 1948 was not the establishment of an independent Palestinian state but the eradication of the Jewish state. In the two decades after the formation of the State of Israel and the Nakba, Palestinian identity developed as a reaction to the situation Palestinian Arabs found themselves in; in the crossfire of competing nationalisms and regional entities and their statelessness and refugee status created by the failure of the Arab states to defeat Israel. Palestinian nationalism in this era was essentially reactive and did not contain a coherent vision for what it was for, such as a concrete programme for statehood and government.[13]

All this changed in the 1960s with the emergence of Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Now the Palestinian cause was to be transformed from a reactive to a proactive project. Under Arafat, the PLO adopted a distinct Palestinian flag and endeavoured to standardise and disseminate a unique Palestinian lexicon and separate national consciousness. In his understanding of the power of symbolism and narrative, Yasser Arafat can be regarded as the founder of modern Palestine even if its road to statehood has, sadly, been largely one of thwarted achievement. Arafat’s imprimatur as de facto leader of the Palestinian nation was the recognition by the Arab League of the PLO in 1974 as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people’. Palestinian identity thus became divorced from the pan-Arab negativity of the Khartoum Resolution “Three Nos” of 1967 – no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiation with Israel. [14]

It was in the 1960s also that support for Palestine became the totemic rallying issue for much of the left that is arguably even more potent today as the humanitarian catastrophe of Gaza plays out; a catastrophe which many see as genocide. There has long been agreement among historians that it was the Six Day War of 1967 that was the catalyst for the shift from support for Israel from, admittedly, the Old Labourist Left, a support grounded in the global revulsion at the Holocaust and solidarity with the socialist ideology of the early Zionists, to support to Palestine from the New Left movements (as well as the Marxist- Leninist Left) as a front line cause in a broader Third World struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and US hegemony. The latter element was pivotal for many nascent pro-Palestinians, due to its position in the oil-rich Middle East.[15]

Having adopted a view of themselves as ‘cosmopolitan revolutionaries’ prior to 1967, the PLO launched a global offensive that was partly supported by the People’s Republic of China, and which aided its integration into the Cuba-led “Tricontinental movement”. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinians consciously and successfully connected with the global revolutionary and worldwide national liberation movements which allowed them to tap into radical networks across the Third World Social relationships forged in this era created a legacy of pro-Palestinian activity in the NGO sectors in nations such [16] as Denmark and Norway and leftist political parties in Western Europe.[17]

Said’s Use of the Term

Arguably Palestine’s foremost public intellectual, Edward Said defined the term “Palestinianism” as a “political movement that is being reborn out a reassertion of Palestinian multiracial and multilingual history.” According to Adam Shatz, US editor of the London Review of Books, Said endeavoured to elaborate a “counter-myth” to that which underwrote Zionism and one written in counterpoint to the “dark historical fatalism and exclusionary fear of the other” characteristic of the Zionist narrative.[18]

As construed by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, “Palestinianism” strove to overcome both Zionism and Arab tyrannies by the three principles of acknowledgement , accountability and acceptance: namely global recognition of the Nakba which was more important than achieving Palestinian statehood; in obeisance to universal principles, Israel should accept accountability for ethnic cleansing as a prelude for a future return of refugees and, thirdly, an acceptance of the historic reality of Jewish suffering, a precondition for integrating Israelis into the larger Arab world within which their state was founded.[19]

Jason Franks in 2006 argued that Palestinianism stood in diametric opposition to Zionism and both it and Zionism were twin ideological codes both accounting for the terroristic, nationalist, and religious elements driving the Israel/Palestine conflict. He further argued that the roots of Palestinianism lie in the Young Turks revolt in 1908 in that it was crucial to the emergence of a Palestinian nationalist sentiment in that period because the revolution in Turkey freed up the press from Ottoman censorship and enabled the local assertion of a distinct Arab identity to emerge. Thereafter, it developed not only as a reaction against Zionism and British imperialism but also against the wider Arab world.[20]

Anti-Palestinianism: A Conspiracy Theory?

A counter discourse has emerged, especially since the collapse of the Oslo Accords and the resumption of perpetual conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians, to the articulation of Palestinian national identity. Heavily conspiratorial in nature and drawing on global articulation of Islamophobia/anti Muslim sentiment as much as support for Israel, it essentially posits Palestinianism as a threat to Western civilisation.

Writing in the context of the Al-Aqsa Intifada Bat Ye’or in her book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis[21] which advanced a conspiracy theory surrounding the emergence of Palestinianism, which she derided as “Palestinolatry” positing that it was both a new vehicle for traditional European anti-Semitism, (and "a return of the Euro-Arab Nazism of the 1930-1940s.") In her view, it emerged with the works of the Anglican bishop Kenneth Cragg[22] and the Palestinian Anglican priest Naim Ateek, director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre.

Neither of these writers, however, had ever used the term at the time of her writing, but Bat Ye'or deployed it to characterize what she saw as ecclesiastical attempts to play on European consciences by depicting Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation.[23]. The impact of this "Palestinianism" can be discerned, she claimed further, in the positions of major politicians in Europe, ranging Jacques Chirac, Javier Sola, Romani Prodi, Dominique de Villepin and Mary Robinson who came to consider the Palestinian problem a central issue for world peace[24]. For her, Christian evocations of the plight of Palestinians betrayed an underlying tradition of Christian demonization of Jews, and had assumed the status of a "modern Eurabian cult".[25]

The term was subsequently picked up as a negative description for the Palestinian cause, by British journalist Melanie Phillips in her book Londonistan in which she claimed that the Muslim Association of Britain, in her opinion the British franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood, had become the “spearhead” of “radical Palestinianism” in Great Britain.[26] Among the many more controversial things she has gone onto state about Palestinianism is that it “is opening up a posthumous Nazi front against Jews”[27] A voluntary retirement of All Nazi analogies and comparisons by All actors in the Israel/Palestine conflict would, if nothing else, lower the temperature of discussions on it.

In 2010 Palestinianism was described by Israeli journalist Moshe Dann as an "ideology", that viewed Israel as a settler-colonial state, and one which had two immediate Palestinian statehood in the Palestinian territories defined by the 1949 Armistice lines, and the implementation of the right of return of Palestinian refugees. According to Dann, who repeated his claims in 2021, the long-term goal of the "elimination of Israel" was explicitly called for in both in both the Palestinian National Covenant, (nullified in 1996 after the Oslo Accords), and the Hamas Covenant (a provision officially cancelled in 2017, but still endorsed by Hamas).[28]

This "ideology" had been, he asserted, legitimized by Israel itself by the 1993 Oslo Accords. Dann claimed that Palestinian identity is a fiction contrived to oppose Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that Israel was entitled to the Palestinian West Bank as it was full of Jewish archaeological sites, with no evidence for any Palestinian historical heritage there or anywhere else in Palestine. [29]

In conclusion, the emergence of a modern Palestinian identity not out of a long-term pursuit of statehood but a complex and contingent response to a series of external circumstances. These included shifting geographical and tribal boundaries occasioned by the transfer of power from the dominion of the Ottoman Empire to that of the British League of Nations mandate, the independence of neighbouring Arab states and the influx of Jewish immigrants with national aspirations over a stateless land. While Palestinian Arab national consciousness most certainly developed as early as the 1880s, the concepts of the nation state and distinct identity were thrust upon the Palestinians as a result of the collision of highly consequential regional events; most notably the 1948 War and Nakba. Consequently, there has been degrees of ambiguity about the ultimate goals of the Palestinian movement by its leaders and the difficulty of fitting the Palestinian journey towards nationhood (and eventually statehood) into the explanatory models used to describe other emancipatory movements. Therefore, both supporters and opponents of the Palestinian cause have tried to put flesh on the rather clunky word and concept of “Palestinianism” which in its almost andromorphic way. has had the effect of adding to the toxicity and divisiveness of the Israel/Palestine debate.

References

[1] Jordan Schachtel, The Roots of Palestinianism. The Dossier 24 October 2023.

[2]Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Ibid

[9] Ibid

[10] Wikipedia

[11] Ibid

[12] Schachtel, op cit

[13] Ibid

[14] Ibid.

[15] Sune Haugbelle and Pelle Valentin, Olsen Emergence of Palestine as a Global Cause Middle East. Critique Volume 32 2023 Issue 1 pp.129-148

[16] Edward Said, (2007) The Palestinian Experience (1968-1989) in Robin Andrew and Bayoumi Moustafa (eds). The Selected Works of Edward Said 1966-2006. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, pp.14-37

[17] Ibid

[18] Adam Shatz (2021) Palestinianism. London Review of Books Volume 43, No.9


[19] Ilan Pappe (June 2010) Diaspora as Catastrophe. Diaspora as a Mission and the Post-Colonial Philosophy of Edward Said Policy Futures in Education 6 (3)

[20] Jason Franks (2006) Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism. Springer.

[21] Bat Ye’or (2005) Eurabia. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

[22] Kenneth Cragg (1991) The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East Westminster. John Knox Press.

[23] Ye’or pp. 176-188

[24] Ibid p,185

[25] Ibid, p.177

[26] Melanie Phillips (2008) Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within. Gibson Square p.120

[27] 17 July 2021. Jewish News Syndicate

[28] Moshe Dann Who are the Palestinians? Ynetnews, Ynet; The Immoral Goals of Palestinianism. Jerusalem Post 7 August 2021

[29] Ibid

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.

Palestestinianism 🪶 Valid Descriptor Of Palestinian National Identity Or Crude Conspiracy Theory?

 

A Morning Thought @ 2716

 

A Morning Thought @ 2715

A Digest of News ✊ from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 2-June-2025.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ “Try me for treason” – antiwar Russian.
⬤ Socialists & Ukrainian national question.
⬤ Russification drive in occupied areas. 
⬤ More evidence of Russian torture.
⬤  Execution of unarmed prisoners.
⬤ UN accuses Russia of crimes against humanity.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

The face of resistance: Crimean citizen journalist Ruslan Suleimanov (Crimea Platform, 30 May)

Russian FSB holds abducted 62-year-old Crimean woman incommunicado for almost four months without vital medication (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 30th)

Ukrainian sentenced to 20 years in ominous twist to Russia’s ‘Crimean Tatar Battalion’ repression (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 28th)

Weekly Update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, 27 May)

Court frees blind and disabled Crimean political prisoner sentenced to 17 years for protest over Russian repression (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 27th)

Merciless brutality against 74-year-old Donetsk hostage imprisoned since 2018 for supporting Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 26th)

Russians execute unarmed Ukrainian prisoners (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 26th)

The Criminal Palimpsest of Occupation (Alterpravo, 2025)

News from the front and ‘peace talks’

Ukraine ready for ceasefire, but waiting for Russian memo (Meduza, 30 May)

Weekly war summary: Russian advance in Sumy region (The Insider, 30 May)

News from Ukraine

Ukrainian Urban Forum 2025 will take place on September 19–20 in Lutsk (Cedos, May 27th)

Enhancing Education Resilience in Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia: Cedos launches new project (Cedos, May 26th)

OPORA Designs a Dashboard Following the Pilot Security Audit in 4 Hromadas (Opora, May 21st)

"Mom, They're Here for Me." The Story of Kherson Volunteer Iryna Horobtsova, Held Hostage by Russian Occupiers for Over Two Years (Signal to Resist, February 11th)

War-related news from Russia

Hidden Bear: the GRU hackers of Russia’s most notorious kill squad (The Insider, 31 May)

Russkaya Obshchina: a nationwide vigilante group (Meduza, 30 May)

Russian manpower: more than 407,000 contracts signed in 2024 (iStories, 30 May)

Andrei Trofimov: “Try Me for Treason” (Russian Reader, May 23rd)

Analysis and comment

Socialists and the national question in Ukraine, yesterday and today (Links, May 31st)

Russian Drone Campaign Targets Civilians (Human Rights Watch, June 2nd)

Sanctions: Old money, new problems (Meduza, 30 May)

The Mineral Deal: Benefits and Risks for Ukraine (Posle.Media, May 28th)

Putin’s War, Ukraine’s Endurance, Western Wavering (Left Critique of the Left, May 20th)

Research of war crimes and human rights abuses

Russia has dragged occupied Ukraine far below North Korea and other ‘worst of the worst’ - Freedom House (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 30th)

Bitter frustration over Russia’s (non) release of Ukrainian political prisoners and civilian hostages (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 29th)

Russian armed forces’ drone attacks against civilians in Kherson Province amount to crimes against humanity of murder (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, May 28th)

«Some of these people may not survive until the end of the political process». Briefing of the People First! Campaign (Centre for Civil Liberties, May 27th)

ZMINA participated in the EUAM conference “Building Bridges Through Justice: Overcoming the Consequences of Russian Aggression” (Zmina. May 27th)

International solidarity

Bulletins for UK trade union conferences (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 31 May)

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 148

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