TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said he can’t really interpret the comments made by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman who used Northern Ireland as a point of comparison as she characterised pro-Palestinian demonstrations planned for the UK on Armistice Day as “hate marches”.
Speaking to The Journal in Paris today, where the Taoiseach is attending a humanitarian aid conference on Gaza, Varadkar said:
“I can’t really interpret her comments. I’m not exactly sure what was meant.”
Writing in The Times, Braverman said “hate marchers” intend to use the Armistice Day protest as a “show of strength”.
The Home Secretary also characterised alleged reports that organisers of Saturday’s march were linked to Hamas as “disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster”.
Braverman said: “I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza.
“They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists — of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland.
“Also disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster are the reports that some of Saturday’s march group organisers have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas.”
Her comments were in response to the announcement by the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, that he did not have grounds to ban a march due to take place on Armistice Day.
With the Taoiseach somewhat bemused by Braverman’s comments, he said he would rather not comment further.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood asid the comments are a “display of aggressive ignorance” that will only stoke division, while Sinn Féin’s foreign affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy said she had “as much knowledge about the situation in Northern Ireland as she seems to have about the situation in Palestine at the moment”.
However, he made the point that what’s happening in Israel and Palestine is a terrible conflict among people who can be at peace.
“I think it’s really important that those of us in other parts of the world don’t make it about us. People create parallels, there are some parallels with conflicts in other parts of the world, but this one is unique,” he said.
He said he hoped Palestine and Israel can be at peace one day, and maybe even be a partnership can be struck at some point in the future.
“If we’ve learned anything in Ireland, it’s that even after hundreds of years of conflict, peace is possible and partnership as possible. But let’s make sure the focus is always on people who live in Palestine, who live in Israel, not trying to apply it to ourselves or our own national experiences,” he added.
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