Former Minister says it would be act of 'self-harm' for Ireland not to play Israel games
Olivia Kelleher
Former minister for justice, Alan Shatter has said that it would be an act of “self harm” for Irish football if the national team fails to play Israel in the UEFA Nations League.
A Sinn Féin motion calling for the October 4th fixture in the Aviva stadium in Dublin to be boycotted will be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday.
The party says that humanitarian conditions in Gaza mean the “international community cannot continue with business as usual.”
In an interview with Newstalk Breakfast Mr Shatter described the controversy surrounding the match as “totally insane.”
“I'm personally completely fed up with the attempt to sabotage every aspect of Irish sporr and bring issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into it.
“I'm personally sickened by the prejudice, the escalating antisemitism, the selective-based outrage based on false narratives.”
The former Fine Gael TD said that a boycott would in no way ease the suffering of the Palestinian people.
“We boycotted Eurovision - it had no impact of any description on anything to do with anything that's happening in the Middle East,” he said.
“We now want to self-harm Irish football.”
Mr Shatter stated that Ireland recently played Qatar — a country whose treatment of migrant workers is often compared to slavery adding that there was a case of “selective outrage” when it came to Israel.
“In August, the Irish cricket team is playing Afghanistan,” he said.
“Women in Afghanistan under the fundamentalist Taliban regime are invisible - they're neither seen nor heard.
“Medical doctors in parts of Afghanistan, who are men, will not provide medical assistance to pregnant women.
“There's no protest about the cricket matches.”
Also on the programme Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward described any decision to the game to a “neutral venue,” in Europe as an “absolute cop-out.”
“Changing the venue does not change the facts that Israel is engaged in the starvation, the bombardment, the bombing, the mass displacement and the slaughter of the Palestinian people.
“Israel are engaged in genocide.”
The Dublin Mid-West TD added that boycotting can make a “huge difference.”
“We've seen in the past where the apartheid regime of South Africa, when people refused, countries refused to play sporting games, fixtures against South Africa, how that impacted and changed that regime in South Africa.”
