Member's statement: Terrorism in Israel and Northern Ireland

Member's statement by Mrs Diane Dodds on 25 February 2025.

MLA: Mrs Diane Dodds
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 25 February 2025
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Terrorism in Israel and Northern Ireland
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4814945

Text

On 7 October 2023, Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israeli citizens and took over 250 hostage. It was the biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. The hostages included children, their parents and many elderly men and women. Tomorrow, the Bibas family will bury Shiri, a young mother who was taken hostage with her two babies, Ariel and Kfir. Their father, who has only recently been released from Gaza, will not only bury his family but will do so in the knowledge that Shiri's parents were also murdered on that day. Today, I want to make sure that the record of the Assembly records their suffering and grief. We cannot begin to imagine their suffering in Gaza. I also acknowledge the charade around their handover. After the Holocaust, the world promised that we would never again allow such slaughter, yet the rights industry and so-called progressive groups and politicians across the world have been notable by their silence on this issue. Where are the women's groups who took up the issue of that young mother and her babies? Shamefully, many in the House cannot bring themselves to acknowledge their pain and suffering. The supposed First Minister for all, in her explanation for boycotting St Patrick's Day in Washington DC, tried to tell us that she was on the side of humanity, yet not one word about the Bibas family, not one word about their suffering, kidnapping and death. In the same week, Sinn Féin eulogised the IRA man responsible for the Bayardo bombing on the Shankill Road, the murder of five innocent Protestants and the maiming of 60 people. It is clear that Sinn Féin's support for terrorism runs very deep. It does not care about the innocents of the 7 October attack in Israel, the killing and maiming of people on the Shankill Road or attacks in hospitals in Northern Ireland. As we have seen with the Omagh inquiry, the pain and suffering from terrorism run deep in Northern Ireland. It is impossible to heal as a community while Sinn Féin continues its glorification of terrorism.

347 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)

Jev’s structured answers met every documented threshold for a qualifying culture-war activity.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.83 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
Criteria met: Identity framing (0.80); Dog-whistle messaging (0.64).
The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.82).
Subject area: Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice).
The text adopts an antagonistic or dog-whistle framing, which qualifies even alongside legitimate scrutiny.

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

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.80	Yes
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.42	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.17	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.64	Yes
Controversy escalation	0.51	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.09	No
Overall judgement	0.83	Above qualifying threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing	0.03
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.15
Adopts it (chosen)	0.82

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)	0.54
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.28
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.17
No identity-related subject	0.00
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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