Member's statement: Gaza War: Ceasefire
Member's statement by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 28 January 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Gaza War: Ceasefire
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4763572
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There has been almost a year and a half of genocide in an attempt to annihilate a whole people in the Gaza Strip. It is worth saying that Israel, despite committing daily massacres and atrocities, failed in its aims. It stated that Hamas would be "wiped out", but it was not. Israel believed that, as a result of its war, people would rally behind it. The truth is that, as a result of its actions and killings on a mass scale, which were live-streamed, its name is the most toxic that it has ever been. During the war, we saw daily and weekly protests in most countries across the world by people of all faiths and none. Quite notably, in big cities, we saw a sizeable number of Jewish activists who were standing up for Palestine, although that was rarely featured in Western media outlets. We cannot be complacent, because there is still a lot of work to do to end the occupation of Palestine, stop the settlements expanding and tear down those apartheid structures, but it is worth saying that people across this island played their part in the stand against Israel. Whilst there is tentative relief amongst people in the Gaza Strip and Palestinians about the ceasefire, I have no doubt that, if called upon again, people in this country — on this island — will come out in their droves. It is worth mentioning that the deal is the exact same deal that was negotiated last year. The obvious question is this: what was the obstacle? It was — surprise, surprise — Israel's reluctance to sign up to and be bound by a peace agreement. When news of the ceasefire broke, some people rushed to throw praise on Donald Trump for it, but, in recent days, he has shown his true colours, as he seemingly has given his support for, once again, the forced movement of millions of Palestinians — into Egypt and Jordan this time. Those are countries that Palestinians do not live in or want to go to. By any definition, that is ethnic cleansing on a mass scale. Almost a week into the ceasefire, we have already seen Israel killing Palestinians on the West Bank, including two-year-old Laila al-Khatib, who was shot in the head by the Israeli military. Whilst the lives of Palestinians obviously do not matter to Israel or the occupation forces, they matter to us. That is why we protest and stand up. Despite all the talk in this institution about exporting the lessons that can be learned from our peace story and all that kind of stuff, it is to the eternal shame of this institution that Ministers could not bring themselves to call for a ceasefire whilst a genocide was being committed live. That should be an important lesson learned for Ministers of this Executive.
476 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: 0.22 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Identity framing (0.62).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.46).
- Subject area: Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
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 | 0.62 | Yes |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.10 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.14 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.18 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.23 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.22 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.46 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.37 |
| Adopts it | 0.17 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.53 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.40 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.04 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.03 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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