Irish nationalists slam Israeli Defense Forces over Bloody Sunday remarks

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Irish nationalists on Saturday slammed the Israeli Defense Forces’ description of Hamas’ attack on Israel as “Bloody Sunday” – a decades-old massacre by British soldiers in Northern Ireland that killed 14 protesters.

“We are staggered beyond belief at a post on X from the Israeli Defense Forces claiming that events in Israel are “Their Bloody Sunday,” a statement shared by The Bloody Sunday March Committee on social media platform X said. The first line of the statement was later shared on X by Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou MacDonalds as well.

“The hypocrisy of a brutal state force comparing themselves to the innocent of Bloody Sunday will dismay Derry people,” the statement said.

“This is beyond outrageous – To have the memory of our innocent dead sullied by the apartheid forces of the Israeli State will cause deep hurt and anger in Derry.”

It went on to say that “223 unarmed Palestinians were massacred at the Gaza border fence by the Israeli Defense Forces in 2018/19,” adding: “They were shot by Israeli snipers, war criminals who were following in the bloody tradition of the murderous Parachute Regiment in the Bogside.”

The committee also said that “after these state killings, Israel did not become the pariah state that it should have.

“Instead the so called international community actually increased military aid to the Israeli Defense Forces killers.”

Also criticizing the UK government for falling short of condemning Israel, the committee said: “It’s clear from the Legacy Bill they imposed on us and from their statement of ‘unequivocal support’ for Israel that there truly is no British justice.”

“We send our solidarity to those who fight for justice and freedom for the Palestinians living under illegal occupation.”

A post on X by the Israeli Defense Forces, which included the caption “this is Israel’s Bloody Sunday,” resembling Hamas’ last week attack to the historic incident, prompted the online backlash.

- Gaza

The number of Palestinians killed by a massive Israeli air assault against the Gaza Strip has risen to 2,215, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said that 724 children and 458 women were among the people killed in the Israeli attacks.

The latest conflict began a week ago when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea and air.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip. That response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that endured a crippling siege since 2007, as well as ordering over 1 million Gazans to evacuate from the strip’s north to the south in less than 24 hours.

- What’s Bloody Sunday?

Derry (Londonderry) was the scene of an infamous massacre in January 1972 when members of Britain’s elite Parachute Regiment shot 27 unarmed people in a civil rights protest. Fourteen of the victims later died.

The killings hastened Northern Ireland’s descent into conflict between the British government and pro-British paramilitaries on one side and Irish republicans and nationalists on the other.

Anger over Bloody Sunday went worldwide as it was recorded by TV crews and it generated a wave of new recruits for a resurgent Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The UK government initially claimed the soldiers were responding to gunfire from nearby buildings – a finding that was supported by an early investigation called the Widgery Report.

However, after years of pressure from the victims’ families, the 12-year Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry, later found that the victims had not posed a threat to the soldiers.

In June 2010, then Prime Minister David Cameron issued an official apology for the killings on behalf of his government, confirming that those shot dead were innocent victims.

The 1998 Belfast Agreement – dubbed the Good Friday Agreement – largely saw the end of Troubles-era violence in which more than 3,500 people lost their lives.

The Bloody Sunday incident is remembered on Jan. 30 every year in Northern Ireland and still remains as a sensitive issue for all parties of the conflict.