From the Other Side of the Canal – Sham Fight in Scarva…

For older members of the community, watching the video from Scarva where unionists gathered at one side of the Newry Canal to shout abuse at a perceived enemy on the other side, will bring back unpleasant memories of the 1997 protests outside Harryville Church in Ballymena, or the dreadful scenes (2001–2) outside Holy Cross Primary School. Both events caused significant damage to the reputation of the unionist community around the world and embarrassed many unionists within N. Ireland. However, most of us unionists did not step forward and openly oppose these protests, partly out of fear that we would be attacked and partly out of a desire to avoid attacking ‘our own side’. This failure to speak out left working-class unionists leaderless and reacting with ugly, impotent rage that we witnessed on our TV news.

At the time of Holy Cross, I remember a N. Belfast loyalist being interviewed and claiming the protests were the only way loyalists could get the media to pay attention to their grievances. It seemed to matter little that their MP at the time was Nigel Dodds of the DUP.

Could anything symbolise the continued lack of direction, the failure of unionist leadership better than the Scarva community spraying its own roads with slurry? What was achieved by the childish chants, the masked men and at least one UDA flag other than bad publicity for the good people of Scarva? A couple of unionists online tried to pretend it was leadership from the unionist politicians that prevented the outbreak of violence from the unionist community, but in reality, it was the Newry canal, the PSNI and the Parades Commission that ensured no violence occurred.

Much of the antagonism witnessed yesterday was indicative of the tension that remains between our communities; it was a symptom of our unionist ‘siege mentality’, our need to keep the enemy and the Lundies out. On Twitter I have been told by unionists that marching through Scarva was the main point of yesterday’s march. It can be tempting (and electorally beneficial) to position yourself in the role of defender of your community, to be centre of attention and to take on the enemy. That Scarva is just one location on the route to Newry along the canal is a less satisfying explanation.

Why Unionists Make the Mistake of Siding with Israel

During the 1970s, Unionist communities were seeing the police murdered by IRA terrorists, and at the same time the PLO were carrying out terrorist attacks such as the 1972 killing of Israeli athletes at the Olympics in Munich. We identified with the Israeli state in the same way as Irish republicans identified with the PLO.

I call this a mistake, partly because Israel’s history of terrorism and the murder of British soldiers is very similar to the terrorism of the IRA. We seem to have forgotten Zionist terrorists like the Irgun hanging two British soldiers, and killing many others in atrocities like the bombing of the King David Hotel. Additionally, the Zionist belief that the land belongs exclusively to their ethnic group and not the Palestinians who have lived there for many hundreds of years, fits well with the hardline Republicans who believe that planters who arrived here 400 years ago, do not really belong.

Palestine Protests – All Welcome

I have long argued that anyone from the Christian tradition should be opposing the regular slaughter of Palestinians by Israel. If you believe Jesus of Nazareth would support Israel’s actions in Gaza or Lebanon, you have not been reading your bible.

Unfortunately, because the majority of those attending Palestine marches here come from the nationalist community, those witnessing Palestine marches in Belfast tend to see it as a nationalist cause and Irish tricolours have been present. For your average unionist, this is off-putting, but as a regular attender of marches in Belfast, I have experienced nothing but kindness. However, I would encourage the Belfast Palestine Solidarity Campaign to explicitly welcome unionists who wish to see an end to the horror of what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

I believe that because of our experience of terrorism, we in the unionist community, who have seen how an imperfect peace process can bring benefits to all, should be talking to Israelis and persuading them away from their current path. What we have now is not perfect, but unlike in Israel, we no longer murder each other’s children.