NOVANEWS
by Daniel Mabsout
The total blackout the Irish struggle has been subject to seems to have no par and maybe due to the fact that Great Britain and its allies holds the major keys to world media . Since we were at school we were never told the truth , we were given lies about a struggle being a religious one between two sects of Christianity -Catholics and Protestants- like the struggle activated now between Sunnis and Shi’as . – I remember that – as pupils- we wondered to what avail and over what were Catholics and Protestants fighting in Ireland ? And if so why weren’t they fighting everywhere else and why isn’t the Catholic Church or the Vatican involved ? Dissatisfied by the evasive answers of the teacher we would ask more about the matter to receive the same response. Finally I think we gave up and ended up telling ourselves that Ireland must be a place- like Lebanon – where multiple religions were source of trouble .
We thought Ireland was England or part of England. We didn’t know that it was a country and a people and a culture and even a religion standing by itself, that it was just a neighboring country to Britain speaking an altogether different language. We did not know that Ireland was under occupation, that it had been invaded by the British the same way Egypt or Jordan or Palestine were invaded and occupied. What we learned also is that not only Ireland was invaded and occupied by its harmful neighbor but was- as well- colonized- with settlements built and settlers coming in from outside to settle and exploit the land and build plantations on usurped territories that belonged to the Irish people. In fact Ireland was a British province the same way Algeria was a French province under French colonization.
Until now the British colonization of Ireland constitutes a great surprise to us and the question arises that : if the British colonized us – Arabs- or colonized Indians who were strangers to them, why -on earth- did they colonize their own neighbors with whom they shared so much ? We still have not found an answer to this question , but it seems that predator nations will not refrain from doing so and from preying on whatever is accessible – be it close or far. They will oppress and exploit and kill their own kith and kin if necessary. This feature applies to Spain –as well – since the first thing the Spaniards did- before sailing to colonize the world -was to invade their neighbors like Catalans and Basques – and subdue them to their own oppressive rule from which- both Catalans and Basques- are still suffering.
After all this, seeing what England did to Ireland, one wonders why people were so shocked when Adolph Hitler caressed the dream of invading his neighbors and expanding his rule to the rest of Europe . He must have been greatly inspired by both Britain and Spain who preceded him along this line.
No doubt Ireland constituted a great experimental field for the British crown to experiment all kinds of oppressive measures and abusive steps and all kinds of repressive policies that will be used overseas to oppress other peoples and subdue other nations . That is why , when the English Puritans sailed to the New continent at the beginning of the seventeenth century , they had mastered many of the means of subjugation of other nations . Like the British , they usurped the land , built settlements , waged war on the Natives chasing them out of their territories, enslaving them and starving them and exterminating them, committing every single violation towards those who welcomed them and greeted them and fed them when they were hungry and taught them how to plant the seeds and work the land. One can even say that the destruction of the potato crop that lead to the starvation of almost one million Irish in year 1840 and to the exile of another million, inspired the settlers of the new continent to exterminate the white buffalo in order to starve the Natives who relied greatly on this animal .
So many parallels can be drawn between the abuses of the British in Ireland and that of the Puritan pilgrims of the new continent, the least of them being the demonization of their enemies picturing them as savage unruly evil creatures that needed to be exterminated for the betterment of humanity. This demonization is still the weapon used in many instances by the imperialists to wage war on poor countries and expose populations and cultures calling for their extermination and cultural extinction by depriving them of their so called evil traditions and evil language and heretic religious practices .
The policies of religious conflict and partition and division and setting part of the population against the other and creating civil wars and local conflicts- as has been carried on in Ireland for centuries- bore its fruits in all the British colonies of the British empire . In India , in the Arab and Muslim world, the policy of divide and conquer perpetrated the rule of the colonialist enemy even after he evacuated the land. In the Arab Nation, it created Israel on Palestinian land . In India, it created Pakistan and Kashmir . In Iraq it created sectarian warfare and ethnical enmities and so many other irresolvable conflicts that are not restricted to a place or area . It killed and is still killing and the crime of the Irish people, like the crime of the Native Indigenous , like that of the Palestinians , was to resist and to refuse to be subdued and their nation subjugated .
If one resists occupation and exploitation and abuse and violation and partition and acculturation, one becomes subject to extermination. This is the rule of the British Crown and the rule of its off Springs : Israel and Uncle Sam , and the rule of the European predators who preyed on their neighbors before preying on us . Long live the Struggle of the people , of all people who are facing the predators by all means. And the Irish people have been resisting for so long , alone , only relying on themselves , not betting on any external help or world solidarity or international support . People who sacrificed so much cannot be denied freedom and inborn rights. Long live Ireland ! Long live Iran! Long live Syria ! Long live Iraq! Long live Lebanon and Palestine! The predator monsters will be defeated for sure , they have been defeated already ! The administration of this world will change hands and they are doomed and condemned by their own doings !
