Last year we helped organise three events in Belfast, Derry and Tyrone exploring the close connections between the struggles in both Ireland and Palestine. One of those involved in the campaign was an activist from Palestine.
Before this Palestinian activist arrived to stay in Belfast she was approached by Sinn Fein and People Before Profit and warned that she “didn’t know who she was getting involved with” by working with ourselves.
Despite tactics the three events were a huge success and we, along with local Palestinian activists, were confident that we could all build on this success and move forward in supporting our comrades who are suffering in Palestine.
We then set about organising events around the upcoming Féile, with the main event being a concert by renowned artist LowKey. Again the Palestinian was approached by Sinn Fein and People Before Profit who made malicious and false allegations about some of our members; that we were thugs, bullies, homophobic and misogynistic.
While the week’s events went well the underhand actions of these people who claim to be passionate about helping Palestine paint us all in a bad light.
Now we have this latest act by sinnfein, to sucker a Palestinian activist into their ranks by ridiculing and blackening others, then cut her loose at the drop of a hat when she tries explaining to them the wishes of the Palestinian people.
https://www.newarab.com/opinion/stand-palestinians-sinn-fein-must-not-silence-us
Members of these political parties should ask their leadership what there is to be achieved by trying to destroy genuine campaigns and initiatives, or is it simply because they don’t have sole control of them?
