Member's statement: Israel: Bombing of Iran
Member's statement by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 16 June 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Israel: Bombing of Iran
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5010129
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Over the past few days, we have witnessed the lengths to which Israel will go and the lives that it will take to maintain its genocidal project. On one level, we have the attacks on Iran and the death and destruction that they have caused. When it comes to who is the main instigator and perpetrator of violence in the Middle East, we should be in no doubt that the blame lies at the door not just of Netanyahu but of the Israeli generals, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli state itself. It is up to the people of Iran and the wider Middle East to decide the nature of their Governments, their states and their rulers and whether they want to keep them.
Israel has no right to be the bully and America's attack dog in the Middle East. It is worth remembering — by the Members to my right as well — that the previous time that a US- and Western-backed regime was imposed on Iranians, it was that of the brutal, autocratic Shah of Iran. It seems that Israel wants not only to implement a scorched earth policy in Gaza and the West Bank but to extend that to Iran, Syria, Lebanon and who knows where else. On another level, in recent days, Israel's actions towards Palestinians seeking aid and assistance have been particularly heinous and disgusting. Israel, alongside the US, set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but, when Palestinians go to seek aid, what happens? They are assassinated. They are killed. They get shot down. At least 66 Palestinians, if not more, have been killed in the past few days whilst they sought aid to prevent themselves and their families from starving. That violence comes on top of the collective violence of the mass starvation initiated and maintained by the Israeli state and backed by most Western Governments. Israel's actions have been so appalling that even that well-known Hamas supporter Ehud Olmert, a former Prime Minister of Israel, has come out against Israel. Whilst business as usual continues for the arms suppliers and friends of Israel, people are really taking the extra step to do all that they can to end the slaughter. I commend everyone who has taken part in the Global March to Gaza from Cairo. Whilst Governments back and fund Israel, it is people across the world who are marching and defying normality. I pay tribute to everyone who has gone to Cairo, particularly to everyone from Ireland — including my party colleague Paul Murphy TD and my constituents Conor McCarthy and Brian Mac An tSionnaigh — who has gone out of their way to take a stand against Israel. They should be commended and congratulated for their important and brave work.
462 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: 0.18 (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).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.66).
- 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 | 0.54 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.22 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.22 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.14 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.16 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.18 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.66 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.05 |
| Adopts it | 0.29 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.30 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.27 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.18 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.17 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.05 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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