Varying contours of injustice.

Full disclosure: this is a (dark) meander....

There are several things that are REALLY alive in me this week. I can’t find the golden thread.

Injustice? 

Human rights? 

Double standards?

So here they all are – excuse the higgeldy piggeldy nature of this thought tempest..

One: The phrase ‘War on Gaza’ is a misnomer.

I keep hearing and seeing it.. The war on Gaza. It generates a jolt of rage each and every time.

Loyalist dupe artists (the media) repeating it – like parrots, directions from the subterfuge.

Theres two constitutive parts of that fallacy, one phenomenological i.e. asserting something that is happening: war, and one geographical: Gaza.

Neither are factual.

Neither are true.

Let’s breakdown why those 3 words belie reality and betray actuality:

‘War’, “in the popular sense, a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude”. I have deliberately relied on a imperialist dictionary of Britannica to expose that even in the colonisers lens, what is unfolding is not a war. The conflict is exceedingly lopsided for it to be considered as such. That coupled with the disparate access to ammunitions of war, casualties and systematic targeting of civilians and their infrastrcture means we have strayed far from the territory of 'war'.

I dispute the use of ‘Gaza’ - because it is not just Gaza. It’s Damascus, it's Lebanon, it's Yemen, it's the West Bank.

I’m reading ‘Night of Power’ by Robert Fisk. In it, he meticulously documents decades of calculated evil exercised by US/UK forces in the Middle East. Chemical warfare for example, the use of which the world’s whitest and squeaky-cleanest superpowers have denounced.

But in multiple assaults on civilian populations in the so-called ‘war on terror’, US/UK powers have routinely used many chemicals - uranium and phosphorus chief among them, in both the First (2004) and Second (2007) Battles of Fallujah in Northern Iraq. 20 years later, Fallujah has strikingly higher rates of infant mortality, and child cancers and physical impairments than all surrounding regions.

This.

Is.

State.

Terrorism.

Conspicuously, Israel hasn’t ratified the Chemical Warfare Convention, unlike 98% of the rest of the world's nations. Which means they can’t be held accountable for breaking the terms of it which prohibit “developing, producing or stockpiling chemical weapons”. As I write that – I realise it’s an oxymoron. Israel have gone fully rogue and don't see themselves as accountable to anyone regardless..

Two: Violent-crackdown on the right to protest by An Garda Síochána is on the rise.

On Sunday I wanted to go to Shannon Airport and join the demonstration there but my glands were swollen, and my body was fibrously whispering ‘don’t you dare’ when I woke up. I didn’t go but received the reports of multiple arrests and felt despair and anger bubble in me simultaneously.

We are seeing ouverte police brutality in other parts of the world and my hope is that we wouldn’t witness it to the same degree here. Don't get me wrong, state violence is not non-existent here and as usual, disproportionately impacts marginalised folk. Alas, video footage from both Queens University Belfast and from Shannon Airport show a very concerted anti-protest Garda mobilisation. We're talking about anti-war, PEACE PROTEST FFS.

Some footage from Shannon shows Cork solidarian / comedian speaking about the fact that the Gards called to his home on the eve of the protest. It reminded me strikingly of the intro of ‘Prophet Song’, a 2023 novel by Paul Lynch depicting dystopian Ireland under a totalitarian regime. The book opens with a scene where the local Gardaí are significantly intruding on citizens right to privacy, freedom of expression and assembly by rocking up to a household and grilling protaganist Eilish Stack on the whereabouts of her husband. His crime? Critiquing the State. What I have heard has unfolded regarding the targeting of extremely visible & vocal pro-Palestine advocates – bears an uncanny similarity…

Three: The current justice system is ill-equipped to deal with rape & sexual offences.

The rape case against McGregor has been ongoing the last fortnight. The jury is poised to deliver their verdict in the coming days. But the glaring deficiencies in the current justice systems capacity to serve justice to survivors loom large.

First of all, this case isn’t even being heard criminally. This is due to a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions that their wasn’t enough evidence to get a conviction ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ – which is the standard for criminal trials. Which means Nikita Hand, the Plaintiff, was left with a civil action. The civil standard is lower, juries can convict (i.e. find guilty) on the ‘balance of probabilities’.

I sat in on various witness testimonies during the trial, including the cross-examination of McGregor. What struck me was the aspects of Nikita's life that were being interrogated. It was a full-blown character assassination. Did she suffer from anxiety; would she be prone to exaggeration; was she ambitious etc. etc. Notably: this level of access-all-areas into her personal life is not mutually applied to the accused - in this case, McGregor.

Due to an evidential rule on ‘bad character evidence’, her barristers were not allowed to grill McGregor on past accusations against him. For example, when a 42 year old Irish woman had to jump off a boat off the coast of Ibiza to escape an attack. She initially identified her attacker as McGregor – but then later changed her story. Another sexual assault claim was lodged against him in Corsica. There’s also unofficial, anecdotal reports that Nikita’s house was burgled when she pressed charges.

It's designed to prevent juries and judges from inferring that a propensity to commit crime or anti-social behaviour based on past behaviour. It exists to allow the leopard to change their spots. But in effect, it can lead to the decision-maker having a partial, sanitised profile of the accused.

Strict publishing laws in Ireland are likely to shield McGregor from further reports regarding a string of allegations. The old adage ‘where there’s smoke…’ isn’t always true – but it can be..

What I think is apparent is that there’s lots happening behind the scenes, beyond the carefully packaged version of events that reaches headlines and becomes the polished narrative.

In conclusion...

All roads lead back to Palestine. How are we still here? Day 409 of the live-streamed genocide. The way in which IDF soldiers parade their sadistic destruction can only be because they know their puppeteers and partners-in-crime (literally) in the Global North think of it as a spectator sport and are cheering them on unequivocally.

On the note of rape. Sky News have reported that Adnan Al Bursh, one of Palestine’s most renowned surgeons has died in prison in Israel. He initially was raped and tortured in Sde Teiman “more horrific than Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo”, before being sent on to Ofer prison where he would die. I mean if Sky News are reporting it, not that I uphold them as a gold standard of journalism or anything of the sort – but they are not (at least very evidently) on one side of this increasingly polarised battle of realities. And by sides I mean: truth and universalised human rights on the one hand, and lies to maintain the imperialist status-quo on the other. How has it come to this?

We need to stay informed.

We need to stay alert.

We need to stay together.

Dark times are here – and show no signs of abating…

This post is dedicated to Noam Chomsky. Chomsky was a ridiculously impressive human. Linguist, political activist, truth-shielder, public intellectual. The fact that he is now mute - is devastating and outrageously symbolic. He has, with zero airs or graces, presided over delivering authentic, accessible analyses of our world for nearly 70 years. He is of Jewish decent - yet one of Palestine's greatest allies.

I think that is the mark of true intelligence. Being able to hold seemingly irreconcilable truths, at once. Nothing but gratitude for every word you have shared Mr. Chomsky. The world is already grieving the loss of them...