Copyright newsletter
On October 7 2023, the day Hamas massacred Israeli citizens, a Stormont MLA posted on Twitter ‘Victory to the Palestinian Resistance’. That MLA was the People Before Profit representative for West Belfast, Gerry Carroll. It is no surprise that someone who reacted in that way to the Hamas killings – which included hundreds of young people at a music festival – was outraged by a visit to Israel by unionist politicians. Among those politicians was the education minister, Paul Givan. Yesterday a motion of no confidence in him tabled by Mr Carroll failed. Sinn Fein of course supported the motion. The SDLP, regrettably, did so too. But Alliance, who often support anti-unionist tactics, ensured that the motion got the backing of more than half of assembly members. If failed on lack of cross-community support. Happily, no unionist MLA was naive enough to support this motion, as Sinn Fein prepares the ground for a future in which it hopes to be able to bypass unionists, via the removal of minority protections (protections that were once seen by nationalists as essential to protect their minority status but which are now seen by republicans as a nuisance now that unionists are in that category too). The visit to Israel by unionists was wholly legitimate. The country is an ally of the UK, its closest in the Middle East. The visit happened when Stormont was in recess and schools were on half-term holiday. It was not funded by UK taxpayers. And it happened when an Israel-Hamas ceasefire has been welcomed around the world. And it was a visit to one of the most advanced societies in history. Israeli educational achievements are possibly unrivalled ever, when measured on a per capita basis compared to Israel’s tiny size. What a pity that NI, which could learn so much from Israeli success, scolds an education minister who visited schools there, to see first-hand their achievements.
