No team should be forced to play Israel

The UEFA Nations League starts in September, and Ireland have been drawn against a team that should not be participating in international sport.

UEFA’s failure to do their job and enforce their own rules means that the FAI have been placed in an impossible position. Boycotting the game may have repercussions for Euro 2028.

I see there is talk about the game being played behind closed doors in Hungary — better than Israeli hooligans running amok in Dublin — but the whole thing is so unfair. Ireland, like Norway and Italy last year, and like Aston Villa in the Europa League, have been put in an unenviable position.

When will the authorities do the right thing? Stop letting this state get off scot-free.

Not playing the game would have ramifications: loss of points and revenue, maybe relegation, but it would send a strong signal to the world, and other countries would hopefully follow.

If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

I wouldn’t change any one law but I would want international law to be applied to every country.

Some countries, most notably the United States and Israel have shown contempt for international law for decades. Israel is currently committing a genocide in Gaza and has bombed other countries in the last year, backed to the hilt by the United States. The US for its part, have abducted the President of a foreign country (Maduro is not a good guy but that is not the point) and have bombed countries at the behest of Israel

International law should apply to all without exception.

Beautiful night in Bilbao

Sometimes there are football matches when the actual game was secondary and that was the case last night in Bilbao.

It was a friendly against Euskadi and Palestine, not an official friendly because Euskadi is not a FIFA member.

https://footballpalestine.substack.com/p/rapid-reaction-euskadi-30-palestine?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1657790&post_id=178997237&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6qqq8g&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Euskadi (the Basque Country, a region of Spain and France, have a lot of decent players, almost all of them playing in the 1st Division in Spain, onewho is playing in Portugal and one who is playing in Greece. The team would be competitive in International competition and would give World Cup qualifyinh a good rattle. The Palestinian team did not manage to qualify for the FIFA World Cup but given the hardships they face, they deserve gteat credit.

The night was all about solidarity and showing the Palestinian people that they are not alone. There was a not too dis-similar night in Dalymount Park last yearwhen Palestine’s women’s team faced Bohemians, but this was on a much larger scale, one of Europe’s best stadiums, 51,000 people in the stands.

A beautiful night all round.

The Palestine National Team will travel to Barcelona to face Catalunya on Tuesday.

Free Palestine

History repeating itself

Daily writing prompt

What historical event fascinates you the most?

View all responses

That’s a tough question. There are many historical events that interest me, many that I could say affects me today.

The Famine

The Irish Famile, I say famine as that it is what it is generally called although it wasn’t really that. Food was taken out of Ireland under armed guard while the Irish people starved, only allowed to eat potatoes. During that period the population of Ireland dropped significantly and we lost our language. We went from a bilingual culture to an English only culture so this event had a profound effect on Irish people.

Sometimes history repeats itself. We watch with horror of what is happening in Gaza, another famine manufactured to erradicate a population. Food, aid trucks parked at the border unable to get through. We saw how the Global Sumud Floatilla was prevented from reaching Gaza, its participants kidnapped in international waters and thrown into Israeli jails where they faced torture.

So you see, that is why the Irish sympathise with the Palestinians. Our history of starvation, displacement and subjugation means that we know what the Palestinians are going through.

So to quote Michael Collins, I hope the Palestinians are given a future. Give them back their country, to live in, to grow in, to love..

Ceasefire in Israel – You cease, we fire

Reports that Israel have broken the ceasefire are disappointing but sadly not surprising. With the ceasefire agreement earlier this week the Israelis and their allies are hoping the world will tuirn away as things as back to normal.

What is normal though? Before October 7th 2023 Israel were murdering Palestinians on a daily basis but not at genocidal levels as we have seen in the past two years. The world must hold Israel’s feet to the fire in terms of the agreement they have signed up to and the leaders of the Zionist state must face justice in The Hague,

Kick Israel out of the World Cup

Today the Israeli naional team take on Italy in Udine. Against the wishes of the majority of UEFA members, Israel is still present in UEFA competitions despite its war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank,

Why FIFA won’t ban Israel despite Gaza genocide

THE TRUCE

The news this week of the ceasefire in Gaza is definitely welcome. Italians are not happy about hosting today’s fixture but the fact that the genocide is at an end, at least for now, might make it less of a problematic fixture.

SPORTING SANCTIONS

Even if the genocide is over, the occupation, the blockade and the apartheid system is not. The threat of expulsion from Eurovision and international football showed the Zionist regime that the world is not on their side.  Sporting sanctions were important in bringing down the South African apartheid system. and exclusion from international rugby in particular hit South Africa hard. The same strategy needs to be used with Israel

Many countries are calling for Israel to be banned form international football. FIFA, however, have shown time and time again that they pursue money to the detriment of the game. Russia was banned within days of the war with Ukraine, it’s time for UEFA, FIFA and other International sporting bodies so show some consistency and ban Israel as well.

Blocking humanitarian aid – The actions of a rogue state.

Politicians, activists, journalists trying to bring aid to a starving population have been kidnapped by the Zionist state. How can Western governments take this any longer? As a EU passport holder I am beyond furious with the at-best, inaction and at-worst, complicity of EU member states in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Irish citizens are on that boat, British citizens, people that are well known; Tadgh Hickey, a great comedian and activist, Chris Andrews, an Irish senator , Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, Kieran Andrieu a jounalist from Novara Media, and a host of other well-known people.

I’ve Been Kidnapped by Israel in International Waters

This has to stop. Israel has to be stopped. They have zeeo respect for International law. Zero respect for anyone. Who is going to do it. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz. Who is going to liberate Gaza?

To what depths will the Zionist state sink?

The UN has now confirmed what we already knew, Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Over the last two years I have been taken aback by how low the Zionist state will stoop and to the extent they are being defended by their allies.

First, when they bombed a hospital we heard that they would never do such a thing. Biden said “it was done by the other team” trying to foster a simple them and us mentality. Now they have bombed every hospital in Gaza, murdered, tortured and raped medical staff, buried them in mass graves and committed various other depraved crimes.

They have bombed men women and children from the sky, burned them alive in tents, shot them from point-blank range and murdered people while they were queuing for food. They have closed Gaza off so the UN and other relief agencies cannot function. People in their desperation are trying to bring food by sea but the Israeli government are threatening them

Yet the Israelis always play the victim. Any criticism of their campaign of violence and murder is becasue people are against all followers of their faith, they say, What utter BS.

The truth is that the Israelis are upping the ante all the time. They haven’t been held accountable for their crimes mainly because they have the backing of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America. I pray that one day Netanyyahu and his cronies will face justice and the Zionist state will be dismantled.

Eurovision 2019 -Why I won’t be watching

Growing up in Ireland during the 80s and 90s Eurovision was our thing. People took great pride when Johnny Logan won in ’87, when Linda Martin won in ’92 and when Niamh Kavanagh won in ’93. After the 1994 success we got a bit suspicious that the Europeans just wanted us to pay for it every year; everyone remembers the Father Ted episode. Still, there is huge disappointment every time we fail to qualify for the final.

Ireland is a country that has gone through a lot of pain and suffering. Our independence in the first part of the 20th century motivated other nations to follow suit so now we should have some empathy with the suffering of the Palestinian people.

It saddens me, what is happening in Palestine. People murdered, towns and villages bulldozed and why? It is because one nation believes it is superior to another and has the right to murder its people and take its land.

What’s saddens me too is that the international community are unwilling to uphold UN Resolutions and find a solution to this problem. Any legitimate opposition to the state of Israel is regarded as anti-semism.

So should people dismiss those who oppose Israel’s ethnic cleansing as anti-semites? Of course not. Firstly people shouldn’t confuse a state with a religion and secondly there are a great many Jews who oppose the state of Israel.

They say too that the Eurovision is not political or is not used as a propaganda tool. Why did Spanish dictator Francisco Franco buy votes for Spain to win the 1968 contest pushing Cliff Ricard’s Congratulations into second place? There has always been a political element to it.

I know Eurovision is very important to many people. It is a cultural event upon which people organise parties around; but I’m hoping that people will come to their senses and switch off this year, in respect for human rights and intetnational law. Let’s see what happens.