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UUP MLA Steve Aiken was part of a group, including Stormont’s education minister Paul Givan, who travelled to Israel last week – prompting outrage from Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance politicians. The delegation met various groups, including the Druze minority who Mr Aiken says told them of “the genocide” there community faced in Syria – as well as the site of the Nova musical festival massacre. The October 7 2023 Hamas attack prompted the latest conflict between the Islamic militants and Israel. However, DUP education minister has faced calls to resign over a visit to a school in Jerusalem, with opponents arguing that the Department of Education should not have promoted the visit on its official channels. Teaching union the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council claimed the department’s promotion of the school visit was an “overtly political and divisive act” and called for the post be deleted. The Alliance Party said it was “extremely concerning” that the minister attended a trip funded by the Israeli state, “knowing the atrocities its government has inflicted in Gaza”. Sinn Fein called the visit “grotesque” and claimed it was “taking action to ensure the Education Minister is held to account”. Representatives of the DUP, UUP and TUV went on the trip – including Steve Aiken, who has hit back at criticism from political rivals. The South Antrim MLA told the News Letter other parties who criticise visiting Israel “should acquaint themselves” with the horrors perpetrated on the country by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists “before pretending to understand what the truth is”. “We did witness huge volumes of aid trucks, either side of the border. We did hear Hamas firing at Israeli soldiers, including one who died, and we heard, after the breach of the ceasefire, Israel’s response. “We also followed on our social media the near instantaneous media pile on blaming Israel when we heard, in Nir Oz, barely a mile or too away, the firing”, Mr Aiken said. He said the trip “was a fact finding tour and an opportunity to talk to the innocent victims and survivors, to talk to the very wide and diverse modern community in Israel, and to make our own thoughts about what has happened”. Mr Aiken says the group met Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze and other groups – including “the LGBT community”. “Though as you are aware, they are not tolerated in Gaza or in most Middle Eastern societies, so they brought a unique perspective to the situation”, the UUP man said. Mr Aiken said there were three important observations from the trip. “The first, and most important observation was the desire for peace, a lasting and just peace. Residual trust in the Palestinians has gone, instead all segments of society, from the far left to the ultras on the right need to see Hamas gone, disarmed, and there must be some mechanism to keep borders secure. “Secondly, the prime minister and the government are highly divisive. We heard as much support for him as we heard the exact opposite. If anyone knows anything about Israelis you will know they are not backwards about telling you what they think. “We were left in no doubt what opinions where, but it would be wrong to say there is strong support for the government, but all agree on defeating Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. “Thirdly, there are huge amounts of disinformation out there. We talked directly to innocent victims who gave us harrowing accounts of what happened to them. “Their evidence was graphically corroborated by the actual footage the terrorists and many ordinary Gazans took themselves”, he said. The trip was organised and funded by the Israeli government through its United Kingdom embassy. It was made up of unionist politicians from Northern Ireland, as well as Welsh politicians. A poppy wreath was left at the site of the October 7 Islamist attack on the Nova musical festival by Mr Aiken and Mr Givan.
