DUP responds to criticism to response on violence in Gaza at Derry Council meeting

Waterside representative Alderman McMorris said that, while she “can’t speak” for all DUP members, she and her fellow Derry City and Strabane District Council DUP members “do not support the violence, the murder, and the mayhem in Palestine”, adding that “violence of all categories is wrong and we stand by that”.

The comments follow a statement by Sinn Féin councillor Pat Murphy, at a recent Council meeting, which drew members’ attention to the killing of 15 aid workers by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza.

Councillor Murphy condemned Israel’s “unabated slaughter of men, women and children”.

He called on Derry’s citizens to show solidarity with Palestine on the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, which takes place on May 15 and “marks the beginning of the destruction of the Palestinian homeland and the mass displacement of the majority of the Palestinian population”.

“The English translation of Nakba is ‘catastrophe’, and the event was indeed catastrophic for the citizens of Palestine, the communities and families throughout the region, and further afield.”

People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin condemned some unionist politicians for “continuing to say to this day that Israel has the right to defend itself”.

He added: “Israel in international law does not have the right to slaughter more than 50,000 people, more than 20,000 children.

“They’re starving [and] murdering the population to drive them out of their homelands, and we do not hear from the DUP that they condemn this.”

In response, Alderman McMorris said: “I believe I can speak for all my colleagues within this council chamber [that] we do not support the violence, the murder, and the mayhem going on in Palestine.

“Violence of all categories is wrong and we stand by that.

“I can’t speak for other colleagues around Northern Ireland, but I certainly will speak on behalf of ourselves in this chamber [and] we do not support it at any level.”

Councillor Harkin asked Alderman McMorris if she agreed with him that Israel is committing a genocide.

“Do you agree with the rulings of the International Criminal Court that Israel is committing war crimes?” he asked.

“Does the DUP agree that all weapons should stop going to Israel, as this council has called for?

“If you don’t agree with that then what is it that you actually agree with?”

Alderman McMorris replied: “ I’m not really going to go into it because it is a non -thing to be tit-for-tatting when we’re talking about the murder of children, [but] I categorically do not support, and I don’t believe any of my colleagues support, that kind of action.

“If Israel is committing war crimes there are courts that will deal with that. I do not support violence of any nature not here in our city and certainly not in Palestine, Israel [or] anywhere else in the World.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter.