On November 17, I sent an email to the TDs and County councillors who are members of PBP-Solidarity. The list of recipients was:
TDs (members of the Dail, Irish parliament)
Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Gino Kenny, Brid Smith and Mick Barry
County councillors:
Melissa Halpin (Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown), Madeleine Johansson (South Dubin), Deirdre Cronin (Dublin City) and John Cahill (Carlow).
The only response received to date has been from Mick Barry’s office, pointing out that Mick is a member of the Socialist Party and Solidarity, but not PBP. Their position is that they oppose the horrific attack of Hamas, and Israel’s war on Hamas, both of which they consider war crimes.
Below is the content of my letter, lightly edited to add captions to the images. Included in the letter was this Stand With Us video highlighting the failure of women’s rights groups to respond to Israeli reports of rape and sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attacks.
Dear TDs and County councillors
Q. When is rape acceptable “resistance”?
A. When the victim is an Israeli woman.
Or so it would seem.
Do you all have mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends or female partners?
How do the women of People Before Profit feel, knowing that #metoo is conditional, that not all women are worthy of belief? At least, not Israeli women?
How do the women of People Before Profit feel, knowing that the men in their party refuse to condemn a war crime of sexual violence against women because the victims were Israeli?
Sadly, it seems the women of PBP may not care.
Hamas terrorists raped women and girls.
Hamas terrorists murdered a disabled teenage girl.
Hamas terrorists murdered women Holocaust survivors.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped women and children.
None of these are valid “resistance”.
Some of you have celebrated the Hamas actions. Others have refused to condemn it.
It appears some women are less worthy than others.
I sincerely hope the public sees your shocking betrayal of women as a symptom of a much deeper rot in PBP. None of you deserves to hold public office.
By Teresa Trainor.
