LONDON: Britain could take a leading role in helping to disarm Hamas in Gaza, based on its experience of encouraging militant groups in Northern Ireland to lay down their arms, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday.
Starmer told parliament that decommissioning the enclave would be vital if Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is to last, the first stage of the US president’s 20-point framework to bring peace to the Palestinian enclave.
Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, was a chief architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, working alongside former prime minister Tony Blair, who has been tipped for a role in Gaza.
Three European diplomats also said the Northern Ireland case was being cited as a possible future model for Gaza, although they noted there was no comprehensive plan in place.
“Of course, this is going to be difficult, but it’s vital. It was difficult in Northern Ireland in relation to the IRA (Irish Republican Army), but it was vital,” Starmer said.
“That is why we have said that we stand ready, based on our experience in Northern Ireland, to help with the decommissioning process. I’m not going to pretend that’s easy, but it is extremely important.”
The IRA, an overwhelmingly Catholic group seeking a united Ireland, said in 2005 it would formally end its armed struggle. It refused to dispose of its weapons in public but agreed to the presence of independent monitors, who after three months said it had put its weapons beyond use.
The Northern Ireland peace deal dealt with everything from reform of the police to the early release of paramilitary prisoners, the disarmament of paramilitary groups and the “normalization” of security arrangements.
However, the IRA never governed Northern Ireland, unlike Hamas, which has been in control of Gaza since 2007 and has overseen all sectors of public life.
Powell was in Egypt on Monday for an international summit on Gaza, alongside Starmer. According to the BBC, he was there last week as the negotiations were being finalized.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff thanked Powell on X on Monday for his “incredible input and tireless efforts.” In Gaza, Israeli officials have said any final settlement must permanently disarm Hamas. Trump has also said he will establish a “Board of Peace” to oversee the governance of Gaza. He had initially suggested that Blair would serve on that, but he said on Sunday he needed to find out if that was an “acceptable choice to everybody.”
Britain pushes Northern Ireland as model for disarming Gaza
https://arab.news/86jb5
Britain pushes Northern Ireland as model for disarming Gaza
- Starmer told parliament that decommissioning the enclave would be vital if Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is to last
- Three European diplomats also said the Northern Ireland case was being cited as a possible future model for Gaza
Activist Peter Tatchell arrested over ‘globalize the intifada’ placard
- Arrest in London during Saturday protest an ‘attack on free speech,’ his foundation says
- Intifada ‘does not mean violence and is not antisemitic,’ veteran campaigner claims
LONDON: Prominent activist Peter Tatchell was arrested at a pro-Palestine march in central London, The Independent reported.
According to his foundation, the 74-year-old was arrested for holding a placard that said: “Globalize the intifada: Nonviolent resistance. End Israel’s occupation of Gaza & West Bank.”
The Peter Tatchell Foundation said in a statement that the activist labeled his Saturday arrest as an “attack on free speech.”
It added: “The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law. The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offense.
“This is part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalize peaceful protests.”
Tatchell described the word “intifada,” an Arab term, as meaning “uprising, rebellion or resistance against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“It does not mean violence and is not antisemitic. It is against the Israeli regime and its war crimes, not against Jewish people.”
According to his foundation, Tatchell was transported to Sutton police station to be detained following his arrest.
In December last year, London’s Metropolitan Police said that pro-Palestine protesters chanting “globalize the intifada” would face arrest, attributing the new rules to a “changing context” in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack in Australia.
“Officers policing the Palestine Coalition protest have arrested a 74-year-old man on suspicion of a public order offense. He was seen carrying a sign including the words ‘globalize the intifada’,” the Metropolitan Police said on X.
According to a witness, Tatchell had been marching near police officers with the placard for about a mile when the group came across a counterprotest.
He was then stopped and “manhandled by 10 officers,” said Jacky Summerfield, who accompanied Tatchell at the protest.
“I was shoved back behind a cordon of officers and unable to speak to him after that,” she said.
“I couldn’t get any closer to hear anything more than that; it was for Section 5 (of the Public Order Act).
“There had been no issue until that. He was walking near the police officers. Nobody had said or done anything.”
