Member's statement: Airports: Arms Supplies to Israel
Member's statement by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 22 October 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Airports: Arms Supplies to Israel
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4607991
Read the official Assembly record
Text
A year into a brutal genocide that has killed at least 100,000 people, you think that you have witnessed everything. After seeing refugee camps blown to bits, hospitals and schools flattened and universities wiped out, you think that you have seen everything. Then, last week, we saw something horrific and brutal that really showcases what Israel and Zionism are all about at their core. We saw the incineration of Sha’ban al-Dalou — the burning alive of a man who was not yet 20 years old. Can you imagine the rightful and justified horror and outcry if that had been carried out in a hospital in Ireland, Europe, America or elsewhere? However, it is deemed to be acceptable and OK because it is another massacred Palestinian. To me and to millions and billions of people across the world, that is not normal, acceptable or right. After a year of genocide and normalisation of the abnormal — the killing of people on the basis of their nationality and the massacre of Palestinians on an industrial scale — we have witnessed a mass movement to defy the political consensus and the actions of Washington, London, Berlin and other states. We have to ask questions and focus on the role played by the Governments on these islands in funding the war machine and, in particular, the use of airports. We know that US warplanes go through Shannon Airport, and I pay tribute to the anti-war activists who protested at Shannon a few weekends ago. Journalists from 'The Ditch' reported that weapons of war had gone from the US via Shannon in Ireland to arm the Israeli war machine under the watchful eye of the Southern Government. What is flown through Aldergrove airport? Who is monitoring what goes through Aldergrove? I asked the Economy Minister a question about that, and his answer was that, effectively, nobody monitors it and it is not monitored by the Department. Are the First and the deputy First Minister monitoring what goes through Aldergrove? If it is found that weapons of war for Israel are going through that airport, who will do something about it?
355 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.32 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.58).
- Subject area: Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers.
- The overall probability was moderate at most and none of the culture-war criteria was close to being met.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.23 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.37 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.42 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.17 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.54 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.32 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.23 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.19 |
| Adopts it (chosen) | 0.58 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.63 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.17 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.13 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.06 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
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