My response to that charge would be to say that lived experience of militarisation, State violence and massacres, does provide you with a moral vocabulary that’s missing from those who did not. Since 1978, Ireland has kept station on the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil). Just five months later, this issue has compounded, since any invocation of, say, “tent massacre”, “flour massacre” or “Jabalia massacre” merely prompts the question: Which one? Which brings me back to the whys of Irish solidarity. Horror, grief and anger change you, the cruelty of state violence, and the cover-ups of same, remove from you the luxury of ignorance.

Source: Irish Examiner October 12, 2024 18:16 UTC