"The
Men Behind The Wire": Comparing Belfast & Gaza
05 September 2010By Jane Stillwater
Someone I know just pointed out to me that there are
many similarities between the brutal assault on
Palestine and Gaza last year and the brutal assault on
Guernica during the Spanish Civil War -- but I think
that if comparisons are going to be made, then the
Gaza tragedy would probably be more similar to what
happened in Belfast back in 1980.
I've seen Pablo Picasso's famous painting of Guernica
and, sure, that could have been a painting of Gaza --
as bombs were repeatedly dropped on its civilian
population. But the analogy between what happened in
Belfast and what is happening in Palestine and Gaza is
even more applicable.
As one Belfast resistance ballad put it, "Armoured
cars and tanks and guns came to take away our sons.
But every man must stand behind the men behind the
wire." Like the heroic Belfast hunger-strikers who
languished in The Maze prison back in 1981 in protest
of the loss of their civil rights solely because of
their religious preferences, how many Palestinians are
languishing behind the wire in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza today? Just listen to this haunting melody
and try not to think of Gaza. http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=QfxqxnJMzCM&NR=1
"Being Irish means they're guilty."
And if you listen to the words of "The Fighting Men of
Crossmaglen," you can practically imagine Palestinians
singing this song to themselves as they bury the dead
children of Gaza and try to deal with "The Troubles"
in Palestine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V3AEgStKvE&feature=related
"I'd sing a song of the bravest men...the patriotic
flame will never die."
When I was visiting Belfast's Falls Road a few years
after "The Troubles" there ended, I saw people trying
to put their lives back together again and working
together to rebuild their community after being
brutally assaulted by the British year after year
after year. The people of the Falls Road were trying
to send their sons and daughters to college, trying to
sooth their children's fears -- and trying to do
whatever they could to make sure they would never
again experience the horror of being under the British
thumb.
That sounds like Palestine and Gaza to me.
When I was in Bethlehem several years ago, I saw
students at the university there diligently attempting
to get an education despite the fact that the
University of Bethlehem's library had been shelled.
Who the freak in their right mind shells a university
library? "We just covered the holes with plexiglass
and turned them into windows."
The people of Belfast identify strongly with the
people of Palestine. They know exactly what
Palestinians are going through now. "Been there. Done
that."
PS: Speaking of "Been there, done that," Scottish
journalist and Middle East expert David Pratt has just
filed a report on the current batch of
Israel-Palestine peace talks. http://www.heraldscotland.com
/comment/guest-commentary/
my-three-point-plan-for-peace-in
-the-middle-east-1.1052496 "Like most people, I feel a
real sense of deja vu. How many times have we been
here before?" Is he referring to Oslo and Camp David?
Or is he referring to Guernica and Belfast?
Pratt then suggests a three-point plan for finally
conducting real, functional, successful peace talks
regarding "The Troubles" in Israel-Palestine.
According to Pratt, "Whether Washington or anyone else
likes it or not, three things are urgently needed if
any toe-hold is to be gained in establishing the basis
for a continuing peace process. First, bring Hamas
into the diplomatic dynamic and negotiations.
Secondly, encourage change within the Palestinian
leadership" [and within the Israeli leadership too!]
"to bring forth leaders with a genuine strategy for
the future, rather than their own self-interests. And,
thirdly, the international community must pile
pressure on Israel to halt its illegal settlement
expansion and hold it accountable for its failure to
respect Palestinian rights....
"As Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah put
it recently: 'No serious analyst believes that peace
can be made between Palestinians and Israelis without
Hamas on board, any more than could have been the case
in Northern Ireland without Sinn Fein and the IRA.'”
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