This article by Mary Horton first appeared in Unity, the weekly publication of the Irish Communist Party.
THE visit by a group of Unionists to Israel this week has created a fair amount of coverage in the news. The group, including members from all three main unionist parties, embarked on their trip to Israel last week, lasting several days. The trip was organised and funded by the Israeli government.
Those taking part are DUP education minister Paul Givan, DUP MP Sammy Wilson, DUP MLA David Brooks, and DUP Newtownabbey councillor Ben Mallon. Representing the UUP is Steve Aiken MLA, while the TUV’s delegate is party deputy leader and Belfast councillor Ron McDowell.
Education Minister
The presence in particular of the Education Minister Paul Givan as part of this “fact finding trip” has come under criticism. Many people in social media and the media generally have expressed outrage at the tour.
In a statement the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council condemned “the actions of the Department of Education and Education Minister Paul Givan in taking part in and promoting a tour hosted by Israeli government.”
“The fact that the Education Minister has undertaken this tour in the context of what has been recognised by the UN as a genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza, as well as Israel’s consistent disregard and abuse of international laws in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is deeply troubling,” they said.
“It is also a cause for serious concern that Minister Givan and the department have posted a number of inappropriate social media posts and online news items on the department’s official website, in what he has claimed is a ‘fact-finding’ mission at the invitation of the Israeli embassy in London. Official governmental online platforms should be politically neutral.
“The minister’s actions in promoting this visit on these platforms is an overtly political and divisive act that serves to diminish confidence in his judgment and respect for the views of the wider education workforce and community.”
Social media posts
The NITC has demanded that the department removes the social media posts and stories on its website about the visit.
The council added: “The minister should also be asked to explain his actions in accepting the invitation of the Israeli embassy at a time when senior officials of that state stand accused of war crimes.”
Alliance MLA Nick Mathison, who chairs the Stormont Education Committee, said questions on “the appropriateness of the minister’s trip must be answered. It is entirely understandable that many have expressed concerns about the appropriateness of the trip and the minister’s decision to attend,” he said.
“Over the past two years, the world has watched in horror as Israel continued to commit atrocities in Gaza. It is clear that the Education Minister and his department have significant questions to answer.
Party or departmental business
“A recent statement from the Department of Education, promoting the minister’s trip, has created additional confusion regarding whether the minister was attending for party business or departmental business.
“There was no prior indication that this was a departmental engagement, making its promotion on official department platforms both surprising and inappropriate.
“There should be no blurring of the minister’s private political activity and the work of the department. It is vital that clarity on the role of the department in this trip is provided urgently.
“I will be seeking clarity from the minister and his officials around the departmental role in this visit. It is vital that there is full transparency in relation to the nature of the trip to Israel in the context of the ongoing conflict.”
The visit by the Unionists is disgraceful but not necessarily surprising in that they have been seen in the past as supporters of Israeli policy.
They are also the historical inheritors of the system of discrimination that existed in Northern Ireland. A fact that many of them do not acknowledge.
The itinerary
The “fact finding tour” organised by the Israeli Government will be precisely that-facts presented out of context and without acknowledgement of the role that Israel had played, not since October 2023, but since its inception.
News reports say that there are also delegates from elsewhere in the UK, but as yet they do not say who they are. The itinerary for the group includes a visit to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, a visit the Gaza Envelope and western Negev desert region, this will entail a visit to the Gaza border with the Israeli military, as well as Israeli communities within a few miles of the border. The official itinerary notes that, “these towns and kibbutzim represent resilience under constant threat, embodying both Israel’s pioneering spirit and the heavy toll of the ongoing conflict”. The group will also visit the site of the Nova music festival, which was moved to that site, much closer to the Gaza strip, two days before the event was to take place. It is described by one newspaper as being “stormed by Hamas during October 7, becoming arguably the most well-known massacre site.”
Certainly it was a shocking attack but arguably not the “most well-known massacre site”-those sites lie inside Gaza. On Wednesday the delegation will meet families of abductees and October 7 casualties. No-one doubts the violence faced by Israeli people-but much of is it due to their own governments actions.
Other places to visit?
Will the group also visit prisons in Israel where children are held, where women and men are held?
Will they visit the newly obtained settler houses? Stolen from Palestinians. Will they visit the places where Israelis ‘view’ as a pastime, over the hills of Gaza to see Palestinians being killed?
And will they meet and discuss with those Palestinian and Israeli residents who are opposed to Netanyahu’s criminal and genocidal actions?
Bringing it all back home
If a Northern Irish delegation was to visit Israel and Palestine (what is left of it) If they were to visit schools and hospitals in both areas, if the delegation was made up of community activists, trade unionists, Nationalist, and Unionists politicians , then it might yield some facts worth listening to.
As it is this is likely to regurgitate “hate based facts” about Palestinians.
Bringing it home to people here will not help our own communities it is likely to create more sectarianism not peace building.