|
Trending Topics
|
Ireland's Hostile Anti-Israeli Narrative Lacks Honesty
(Jerusalem Post) Alan Shatter - The Irish government and parliament's obsessive, selectively critical, hostile anti-Israeli narrative is economical with the truth. Its demonization and delegitimization of Israel lends international credibility to the malign narratives of Iran, Syria, Turkey, Hamas, Hizbullah, and Islamic Jihad. For the Irish government to make a truly beneficial contribution to peace, an entirely different approach should be adopted. The Irish government ignores the inconvenient fact that the Israeli government has no party with whom to currently negotiate. For 14 years Gaza and the West Bank have been ruled as two separate Palestinian entities by acrimonious Palestinian factions (Hamas and Fatah) who are incapable of agreeing on the parameters of any resolution with Israel. The Irish government also needs to address Palestinian violations of Israelis' and Palestinians' human rights, the murder by Palestinian factions of their Palestinian critics and opponents, the jailing and denigrating of Palestinian peace activists for engaging with Israeli peace activists, the military training and arming of children by Palestinian militant factions, and the use of Palestinian civilians, including children, as human shields when firing rockets from within civilian locations. As other EU states have done, the Irish government should also address the Palestinian education system, partly financed by Ireland, which a recent EU report confirms encourages child martyrdom, glorifies terrorist atrocities, and teaches narratives designed to escalate division and conflict instead of encouraging greater understanding, peaceful engagement, and conflict resolution. The writer is a former Irish minister for Justice, Equality & Defense.