The motion was passed by 31 votes to 28 on 01/06/2021, showing a seismic shift from previous votes and debates on the Israel Palestine conflict.
Previous debates and deflections have implied the conflict is complicated and complex: That there are two sides to the conflict and both have been wrong. Perhaps the people of Belfast should not get politically involved in matters that are occurring halfway around the world or indeed that ‘God gave the Land to the Jews’ as in the biblical testaments
We can now clearly see that the sands of history have shifted. That the councillors representing the people of Belfast are indeed reflecting the desire and wishes of the majority of the residents in Belfast to have the Israeli Ambassadors to Britain and Ireland expelled.
There are not two sides to this story. It is simply a matter of right and wrong.
Israel in its apartheid policies and land grabs in Palestine is wrong and the Palestinians who have the legal right to resist an illegal military occupation by any means necessary are right.
I stand by all 31 Belfast City Councilors who voted to remove the Israeli Ambassadors
I stand by all the people of Palestine who live inside and outside of historic Palestine, East Jerusalem, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Gaza, Lebanon and whereever the displaced, the refugees and the diaspora live.
I stand by the resistance movement that challenges the illegal occupation by any means necessary.
Thank you Belfast. Proud to be from here.
Below is the motion brought before council.
Fra Hughes is a Freelance journalist-author-commentator-political activist. |
Follow on Twitter @electfrahughes
Is this the same Fra Hughes who was thrilled to meet Assad in Sryia?
ReplyDeleteNo questions the Israeli's are wrong and excessive in their violent responses or land grabs. But Hamas are no angels with clean hands and 'by any means necessary' is not an ethical or morally superior strategy. The more innocent Palestinians that are killed the more Hamas profit from international contributions to their war chest. I think Fra's head is up his ass if he thinks the Likes of Assad and Hamas can do no wrong.
I remember from the Blocks debating with some on the British Left about the "by any means necessary position that some of them were adopting in relation to the republican push in the North. It seemed then a wholly indefensible position and still does. Camus. for me, called it right: "even in destruction, there's a right way and a wrong way—and there are limits."
DeleteAM, My ex also summed it up good, 'having a legitimate right does not mean it is always legitimate to exercise it'.
Deletedon't know about it not being legitimate to exercise a legitimate right. I think it can often we unwise to exercise it.
DeleteHere lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong.
I don't think the legitimacy of a grievance extends to all means used to resolve it.
Will there a motion to expel Chinese ambassadors for the treatment of the Uighurs; the occupation of Tibet and the settler-colonial policy of settling Han Chinese there and its brutal suppression of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement?
ReplyDeletethat hardly makes the opposition to the Israeli terror regime less valid. Pushing against Israeli atrocity is a progressive move. Those with their shoulder at the wheel should desist from seeking to dissuade others from opposing Nazi like atrocity whether it be perpetrated by China or Assad.
DeleteAM
DeleteMy ref to Assad is not in the same context as BG's ref to China. I was highlighting Fra Hughe's tolerance or support for atrocities committed directly or indirectly by Hamas and Assad.
Christy - I wasn't addressing what you said in this thread but rather Barry. I don't think we can justify atrocities even where we understand them.
DeleteTokenism. The Israeli's will simply not give a fuck and neither will the UK&Irish Governments.
ReplyDeleteabout it alone, no. But there is a growing sense that it is part of a creeping tide that is progressively making it harder for the Israelis to persist with their terror. A terror regime deprived of the ability to use terror has problems. Settler colonialism was a disaster from the get go. Yet, if I was a Jew, I would always feel at risk in a world where anti-Semitism has never lurked too far beneath the surface. There have indeed been worse atrocities than the Holocaust but it had a certain peculiarity because of the malevolence that flowed into it. While an ideological regime rather than malevolence might have caused it anti-Semitism is a breeding ground for hate.
DeleteAntisemitism is a manifestation of hate per se. And it was precisely this sort of hate that was in full view on the streets of London, Birmingham, Bradford and other British cities with convoys of South Asian men driving through Golders Green in cars draped with Palestinian flags shouting "Kill the Jews. Rape their women" and with rabbis being assaulted
ReplyDeleteThe Community Security Trust reported a 600 per cent increase in antisemitic hate crimes last month much of it attributable to Islamist and far left hate inspired by the events in Israel/Palestine that month.
Expressing anger at the deaths of civilians in Gaza is quite legitimate; it crosses a certain line though when Islamist groups like Friends of the Al-Aqsa Brigade and Muslim Association of Britain along with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organise ill-disguised hate fests under the cover of sympathy with the Palestinian cause.
Zionism gained its original impetus precisely because Jews always felt at risk in a world (especially Europe) where antisemitism has never lurked too far beneath the surface and that is why many Jews see Israel as the ultimate safe haven.
There is no justification for anti-Semitism. It is vile. At the same time there needs to be a disabusing of the notion that criticisms of Israel is anti-Semitic regardless of what Jews think of Israel. The concept of Israel should no more be protected than the concept of Islam or Christianity.
DeleteHaving a safe haven is no justification of using that safety to commit atrocity.
Israel is some ways gets the type of negative attention Aung San Suu Kyi drew down. It is to do with their history of highlighting injustices against them by more powerful adversaries and then going on to inflict serious injustices on others less powerful.
ReplyDeleteWhen the French resisted the German occupation it was legitimate .When the Polish Jews rebelled in the Warsaw ghetto that was legitimate. When the people of South Africa black and white fought the apartheid regine that was legitimate When the Irish Kenyans and the population of India fought the British that was legitimate.The use of resistance by any means necessary is enshrined in international law .If the Palestinians decide its their right to defend their people in occupied Palestine , Who are any of you to question that. They have been occupied for 73 years had their lives land homes and resources stolen.I support the Syrian Arab Republic who had to fight the french colonial military occupation for their independence and I support the recently re elected president Assad overwhelmingly endorsed by the people..To destroy Syria like Libya Iraq and Afghanistan with countless more millions displaced is simply wrong.it is a regime change operation by America Saudi Arabia turkey and Israel.its pretty pathetic so many of you haven't a clue as to what's happening in the region but are so quick to judge and pontificate. None so blind as those who won't see. Fools and knaves everywhere.
Fools lie because they do not know the truth knaves lie because they end to mislead .Fra Hughes
12:18 PM, June 04, 2021
None so blind who cannot see what is in plain sight as you were when you fawned over the Great Leader, Fra
DeleteRemind me, who were Assad's opponents in that election? Who certified it as free and fair?
Remind what major power is keeping Assad in power, Fra.
Hamas are not defending their own people, they are using them as canon fodder and human shields. And they brutalise the Palestinian people everyday with their extremism.
DeleteFra you strike me as a Colonel Nicholson character... the guy who became so obsessed about building a bridge over the river Kwai that he disregarded what assistance he was giving to his enemy. You are deluded if you think Hamas are the good guys... because the Israelis are bad guys does not mean that Hamas must be the good guys... there is a difference between not having the same firepower as the Israeli's and being morally and ethically better
'By any means necessary' is a mantra and not international law.
Fra - I fail to see how by any means necessary could be part of international law. If that were so, international law would not recognise anything as a war crime because it too would fit into the category of anything goes. I guess what is in international law is something equivalent to "by any legitimate means necessary"
DeleteFra
ReplyDeleteWhen you have a moment Google "Caesar Photos Syria" to witness images taken by a regime prisons official who later defected of at least 6,000 torture and murder victims in Assad's Toeul Sleng complex. But I guess you will say that the photos are fake or doctored; the reflex response of all Assad apologists.