Dublin councils obsession with Israel/Palestine conflict

What I find hilarious is Hamas and the other factions fighting Isreal would be much more closely aligned on societal issues such as LGBT rights and abortion with the DUP than the left.

Again with Israel there's two sides in it deliberately targeting civilians, why take sides at all ? Surely time would be far better spent not objecting to homes been built.

Perhaps you might aid them by telling them what to think and do, in a strongly worded letter.

There was a vote recently to boycott Israeli products by sdcc written by a local sf councillor

And fair play to him for doing so. BDS is the way forward.

Every voice raised and action taken contributes, however small it might be. It's how the movement against apartheid South Africa began.

Thankfully they take their platform and use it for good. You might explain "where this section on international disputes exists in the job description of a city councillor" states they are barred from voicing their opinions on anything other than parochial matters.

I'd be well to the right in Irish terms, but I'm all in on the Palestinian rights issue. No self respecting Irish person would back the oppressive policies of a State like Israel. The only long term solution is that of two States, Israel and an independent Palestine.

But the original point is valid, various Councils do take up far too much time with tokenistic motions on foreign policy and human rights issues that they should not be near.

I am on the left but pro-Israel. This is unusual, I would grant, but even if I were anti-Israel, county councillors putting up motions of this sort strikes me as virtue signalling nonsense. It seems like a distraction attempt from doing their actual jobs (what are their actual jobs, incidentally?).

We absolutely do not. Not amateurs and tokenists who are doing it as much, if not more, for their own profile.

Hardly surprising, seeing as more and more Palestinian land is stolen every year. If things keep going like that nobody will be able to "point it out on a map".

Which I'm sure will delight the Israeli apologists on here.

I'm going to disagree with you there. In recent years people who claim to be on the left have engaged in criticisms of Israel that have bordered on, if not actual, anti-semitism. I don't understand why some on the left (and some on the right) have a problem with just one small Jewish state in the world.

As someone of the left, frankly, yes, I do feel like an outcast within the broader left at times. I don't understand why prominent voices of the left rarely raise their voices in condemnation of terrorist attacks on Israel, for example.

This is, quite simply, bollocks.

Criticism of Israel is not "anti-Semitism", no matter how much some people dearly want to try and make it out to be. The anti-Semitism slur has been stretched beyond breaking point at this stage and is completely without any merit on far too many occasions in which it is used. It has now merely become a handy way to eliminate criticism of Israeli actions and that needs to be fought against in any and all situations because that cry wolf attitude will end up helping nobody in the end, especially Jews.

That there are people who will engage in anti-Semitic remarks out there on both the left and right is a given. But nowadays just pointing out the egregious actions of the Israeli state is enough to be branded an "anti-Semite" and that kind of thing goes a long way to making the accusation redundant.

However, as a whole, it has always been the left who have been more in favour of Jews and Israel since its foundation and before. Whereas the right, especially in its extreme form, has clung to outdated stereotypes, labels, underhanded misinformation, and has gone so far as to wish to see them exterminated.

Criticism of a country that oppresses another and keeps people in a state of extreme hardship and despair is valid no matter what that country is and Israel doesn't have any immunity from that criticism.

I forgot about BDS, an organisation and movement surrounded by corruption and sleaze.

The problem is with the occupation and colonisation of lands outside israels recognised borders.

States don't have rights, people do. People have a right to self determination, but this doesn't allow them to take it away from others, which is exactly what the entire Zionist project did to Palestinians.

Also, if Israel has a "right to exist", so does Palestine, and it pretty clear that supporters of Israel do not support Palestine's right to exist, as they either support settlements, or they claim not to support them, but are against any and all attempts to stop settlement expansion, for example calling peaceful resistance like BDS anti semitism and basically treating it akin to terrorism.

South dublin county council s the authority responsible for local government  in this area of dublin...As a county council, it is governed by the ‘local government act’...The council according to their mandate is responsible for our housing and community needs, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture and environment ...

so why again are the councilors who we fûckin pay for, to work on OUR behalf, for all of the above worried about and engaging on an international subject when that time and energy should be put to use to enable the wellbeing of people here...... weird.