On June 15 and 16 respectively, the Guardian’s CiF site lent its hospitality to Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, the Northern Irish catholic activist who campaigned against the British government in 1969 at the onset of the troubles, and Chris Doyle, of CAABU, the organisation whose remit is to present the Arab world to us in touchy feely loveable terms, and to constantly remind us of Israel’s villainy.
Bloody Sunday: Put Britain in the dock by Bernadette Devlin
Before getting to the article, here are some things we should know about Devlin:–
1) As an MP in the British parliament in 1972, she crossed the floor of the House and punched Reginald Maudling, whom she accused of lying, in a statement about Bloody Sunday.
2) She has a prison record,of which she is, no doubt proud, because of her involvement in what became known as the Bogside barricades.
3) On a visit to New York, she was given the honour of being given the keys to that city by the mayor, which she then passed on to the Black Panthers, in a deliberately provocative act against her hosts.
Devlin is given free reign by CiF, to paint the British government in the worst possible light, following the Saville enquiry into whether the 14 peaceful, unarmed demonstrators at what became known as the Bloody Sunday massacre were killed deliberately by the British government, whose “anonymous and brutalised soldiers of its alphabet army should be in the dock at the international court of justice in the Hague” and whether the “British government committed a war crime in 1972 and in so doing started a war”. The Saville inquiry took some 12 years, and cost the British taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds, and it was set up because the initial inquiry by Widgery was considered a whitewash.
The inquiry found that the actions of the members of the British army were “unjustified and unjustifiable”, but that is not enough for Devlin, our doughty fighter for truth and justice, who opined,”[i]f Saville has closed that route to truth and justice, the British government will consider it worth every penny ” (referring to her view that the government should itself stand in the dock at the ICJ court in the Hague).
In her conclusion, she took the irresistable opportunity to connect that “missed opportunity” of the British government’s non-appearance at the Hague to the other cause so beloved of the thugs and bullies of the IRA and Sinn Fein, namely, trying to destroy Israel. And so we get the following:
“Had the British state been speedily held to account at the Hague, things might have been different for a lot of people, not least for nine Turkish human rights activists on their way to Gaza. they might not have been so confidently slaughtered by the state of Israel”.
Of course the thing that joins the IRA, Sinn Fein and Hamas at the hip is their drive to remove the “colonialist invaders” from territory they consider exclusively theirs.
The next day……
Off the hook: Israel’s own Widgery inquiry into Bloody Monday by Chris Doyle
Chris Doyle serves as director of CAABU (although no mention of that anywhere in the CiF piece), the same CAABU that purports to “[p]romot[e] a positive and enlightened approach to Arab-British relations in government, parliament, the media, education and amongst the wider pubic”. In other words, blackening Israel’s name at every opportunity in the court of public opinion, as Doyle’s numerous letters to the press will attest.
Doyle is perhaps best known for advocating that the Union Jack should be replaced with something less offensive to Muslim sensibilities, the cross of St.George being a graphic reminder of the crusades.
In the Guardian’s CiF, Doyle finds himself at home in his natural habitat, and so lets rip, unlike his usual restrained style (for him) when writing to say the Times or the JC, (who stupidly publish his vile propaganda.)
And thus we get, inter alia:–
“The man who ordered the attack on the aid ship to Gaza, (Netanyahu), set up the inquiry…..has announced its outcome even before it has started”.
He calls the inquiry a “re-run of Widgery”. ie. a whitewash.
He describes the future inquiry as a kangaroo court, because the chairman, Jacob Turkel, has stated that holding people to account is a marginal issue.
He says that “Turkey has understandably dismissed the inquiry”, and so it cannot be valid. (The same Turkey that in the last few months has assassinated hundreds of its Kurdish “terrorists” of the PKK, including pursuing and killing them across the border into Iraq, against international law. And the same Turkey of the Armenian genocide of upwards 1.5 milion.)
He accuses two independent observers on the inquiry of bias towards Israel.
He names the Kahan Commission into the Sabra and Shatila massacres as an example of Israel’s record of investigating itself as “shockingly poor”, because after Ariel Sharon was found to have “personal responsibility”, (even though the massacre was in revenge for the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister by Muslim forces loyal to him, and no Israelis were involved in the killings), Sharon was allowed to remain a minister.
On and on and on goes his litany of hate, minus any context, such as demanding the total lifting of the Gaza blockade, without any mention of the Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, that makes it necessary to prevent the inflow of deadly weapons.
“Israel, like a spoilt child, can do as it pleases” with impunity.
Then, “[h]ow can a government that uses overwhelming force against civilians, torture, detains children without trial, steals land and resources of another people, demolishes their homes and property, and has violated so many laws and conventions it would be difficult to list them on one page, seriously be expected to hold itself to account?”
And how can any decent, fair-minded person take seriously the words of a proven liar, in the pay of the Arab lobby, on a website well-known for its Judeophobia and hatred for the world’s only Jewish state?