Gary Spedding

Gary Spedding is an human rights and conflict resolution advocate deeply involved in conversations surrounding conflict transformation and Middle East conflict dynamics as well as comparative conflict analysis of the Northern Ireland Peace process. He has written op-eds for a number of online publications, including Huffington Post UK, Belfast Telegraph, TheJournal.ie and +972 Magazine. He is also an active member of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. Follow Gary on Twitter

Israel’s Ambassador to Ireland big on rhetoric but not facts

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Earlier this week, Israel’s Ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, penned a particularly audacious letter in the Irish Times. His narrative is almost entirely designed to misleading the public through the selective manipulation of information and half truths to obscure Israel’s crimes. Modai claims that “Hamas began its present rocket offensive against Israel on June 12th”, but this is patently untrue. A Reuters report from 30th June reveals that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu only accused Hamas of this as of Monday …

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What happened in Galway was wrong but don’t be misled about BDS

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As a longstanding advocate for Palestinian rights, I unequivocally condemn the shameful and frankly unacceptable behaviour emanating from a student at NUI Galway who last Wednesday disrupted an event on campus, telling BICOM’s Alan Johnson to “Get the f**k off our campus now“. There, I’ve said it. I don’t think I lose any credibility by rejecting behaviour that is wrong, damaging to Palestine solidarity work and also contrary to the centuries-old practice on university campuses of open forum discussion on …

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