A shrill voice screamed into a megaphone outside Queen’s University Belfast during a recent visit by the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The air held an escalating energy.
“They will kill anyone, they will do anything, to make sure Palestine does not exist anymore!”
I did not want to affiliate myself, but I hovered at the crowd’s edge, students and citizens who needed only a spark for chaos to erupt. “We are all Palestinians!” The crowd started chanting.
That last remark is common at these protests. But in Northern Ireland, it bears a heavier meaning.
Here, in this strange middle ground that is simultaneously both Ireland and the UK, the Israel/Palestine conflict is a frontline issue.
For over a year, I have lived amidst the post-violence embers of one of the world’s longest-standing national conflicts. Just as Belfast is deeply divided into Protestants and Loyalists versus Catholics and Republicans, other global conflicts are framed across the same lines. This, unfortunately, is one of the main reasons why Israel has characterized Ireland as one of the most systemically anti-Israel nations, especially following the recent closure of the Israeli Embassy in Dublin.
Many protestants in Northern Ireland began flying Israeli flags in 2002, not motivated by direct support of Israel as much as a response to the raising of Palestinian flags by the Catholic community. In many ways, these flags have been detached from their origins and have morphed into political symbols that represent the evolving ideas of Northern Ireland’s political divide over time. This is all to say that the entanglement of Ireland and Palestine is historically rooted.
And so, Palestinian flags waved. The shouting continued but had now devolved into wordless screams. Then the spark came. A group of protestors jumped the barricades and rushed into the lines of security officers and police. Four were arrested.
Based on first-hand experience observing the situation here, the ongoing war in Gaza, and a basic grasp of the history of the two regions, it is clear that the direct comparisons these protestors promote are fueled more by ideology than fact. The unjust simplifications and ignorance exhibited by these vociferous anti-Israel protesters that are amplified by cultural, media, and governmental sources blind the path for a true solution, contribute towards a wrong perception of Israel on the world stage, and embolden the Palestinian terrorists who wouldn’t blink twice at kidnapping or murdering Irish nationals if given the chance.
In discerning the two histories, the British treatment of the Irish starkly differs from Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in a number of ways, while ironically sharing more than a few parallels between the British and the Jews – both before and after the establishment of Israel.
The British historically sought to dismantle Irish culture and identity, exemplified by their bans on the Irish language, confiscation of land, and economic policies that worsened the devastation of the Potato Famine.
By contrast, Israel’s approach to the Palestinians is fundamentally different. While protestors often accuse Israel of seeking to erase Palestine, such claims ignore the facts.
Israel has never aimed to destroy Palestinian culture or people but to defend itself against groups like Hamas, which explicitly call for Israel’s destruction.
This is evident in the current war in Gaza, where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) strive to minimize civilian casualties, even while Hamas uses civilians as human shields. As Jennifer, an Israeli EMT displaced for over a year due to violence, stated: “We’re not trying for them to be like us…we want them to be them and to learn to live in peace with us. They can get so much from us…but they are being influenced by Hamas.”
Hamas and Hezbollah control their populations through censorship, suppression of dissent, and violence. Hamas arrests and tortures opponents, executes alleged collaborators, and violently disperses protests. Hezbollah intimidates critics, enforces political dominance, and controls Lebanon’s Shiite population through social services. Both use media propaganda to shape public perception.
Irish resistance during British rule, in contrast, was grassroots and driven by a desire for national freedom, not the obliteration of other people. Ireland’s fight for independence sought to reclaim autonomy and culture, not to eradicate Britain.
Ironically, the parallels between the British treatment of the Irish and the British treatment of Jews reveal deeper historical commonalities. The British enacted policies that suppressed Jewish immigration and often aligned with Arab colonial resistance to any Jewish self-determination, before, during, and after the Holocaust and Israel’s establishment. Both the Irish and the Jews experienced systemic oppression and were viewed as obstacles to British imperial ambitions.
While Ireland’s relationship with Israel has since evolved, the foundational differences remain clear: Hamas’s violent goals and targeting of civilians starkly contrast with Irish nationalist movements, and Israel’s defensive efforts, including providing Gaza with resources even during wartime, are a far cry from Britain’s harsh colonial policies. The oversimplification of these conflicts obscures critical distinctions and historical truths.
It is no coincidence that these Irish anti-Israel provocateurs are active in and near higher education. Political and ideological historical narratives shape collective identity and individual action and Queen’s has a long history of contributing to the development of Irish historical revisionism. Why Irish national consensus has overwhelmingly sided with the Palestinians for seemingly arbitrary, or at least non-historically factual reasons, is a subject for another conversation. The importance here is to address the faulty method of the blind and zealous identitarian belief that has been exacerbated by the globalized debate on Hamas’s continued atrocities and the Jewish right to survive in the Middle East.
The only way to fight this societal disease of the mind is to encourage students to fight for understanding instead of recklessly forming crowds and chanting meaningless slogans. Though not all perspectives are created equally, it’s nevertheless important to seek out as many differing perspectives as possible, because as history has shown in both parts of the world, the historical narratives you are taught don’t always give you a full picture of reality.
No matter what these violent protestors believe or the prejudices still dominating Irish public discourse, hostages are still suffering. Civilians are still intentionally put in harm’s way. Rockets are still falling. Soldiers face excruciating dilemmas against enemies who do not care for innocent lives. Our duty as world citizens is to work toward a situation where the war can end without allowing the evils of the past to repeat. Yelling at Jews to “Free Palestine” won’t achieve this. Freeing Gazans and the hostages from Hamas and its deadly ideology might.
This article was originally published in All Israel News.
