Sinn Fein hurls Nazi smear at Shatter and Israeli ambassador
Senan Molony Deputy Political Editor
THE only Jewish deputy in the Dail and the Israeli ambassador were both compared with the notorious Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels yesterday by Sinn Fein's Aengus O Snodaigh.
The Sinn Fein justice and equality spokesman launched his dramatic verbal attack on Ambassador Zion Evrony and Fine Gael's Alan Shatter at a parliamentary committee hearing into the conflict in Gaza.
Mr O Snodaigh provocatively compared the pair's defence of the Israeli invasion with the arguments of Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister.
"Goebbels would have been proud of the twisted logic and half-truths," he said.
Mr Evrony branded the remarks despicable and demanded an apology.
Mr Evrony was called before the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee hearing with Ireland's most senior Palestinian representative Hikmat Ajjuri to answer questions about the continuing violence.
Mr Evrony and Mr Shatter argued that the conflict would not have occurred if Hamas had not indiscriminately fired rockets at Israeli civilians.
The meeting took place as Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside Leinster House.
Mr Evrony told TDs the majority of those killed in the recent attacks on Gaza had been Hamas fighters. "I am sorry for the deaths of civilians," he said.
"I can assure you that Israel does not deliberately target civilians, and is taking every measure to avoid them."
The "tragic example" of the Jabalya school massacre showed that such precautions were "not always successful", Mr Evrony said, pointing out, however, that mistakes had also been made by coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Mr Evrony said Israel had been hit by 8,000 rockets, missiles and mortars in the past eight years that were deliberately targeting civilians.
Dr Ajjuri, Palestinian Assembly representative in Ireland, pointed out that Israel had ignored no fewer than 30 UN Security Council resolutions over the decades while annexing large swathes of the territory of others. "Gaza has been turned from a big prison into an abattoir, a slaughterhouse," he said.
He said the 8,000 rockets in eight years had succeeded in killing a total of 20 Israelis.
"I apologise for the killing of 20 innocents," he added, pointing out that Israeli retaliation had killed 3,500 Palestinians -- and this before the opening of the current invasion.
- Senan Molony
