Debate contribution: Exclusion of the Minister of Education from Office
Debate contribution by Ms Kate Nicholl on .
- MLA
- Ms Kate Nicholl
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 10 November 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Exclusion of the Minister of Education from Office
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5224276
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Paul Givan is entitled to his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but, in his role as Education Minister, he represents every child, school and parent, and that has weight. What message does promoting a state that is accused of war crimes and genocide send out to those whom he represents? We are obliged to ask the following questions: to what end? Whose story is he telling? Whose pain is he willing to see? Those are the voices that are missing from the Chamber today, and I will bring them in. The Palestinian community has asked me to read the following:
"We in the Palestinian community are shocked and dismayed by Education Minister Paul Givan's visit to Israel and Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine under illegal Israeli occupation. During and after his visit, the Minister made statements praising the genocide in Gaza in which, so far, around a quarter of a million Palestinians — over 10% of the Gaza population — have been killed, wounded or remain missing. It is important to remind the Minister that Israel also destroyed Gaza universities and 95 of its schools, depriving 660,000 students of their right to education. Despite the announced ceasefire, Israel continues to bomb Gaza, killing and injuring hundreds of Palestinians. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers attack Palestinians on a daily basis. Over the past two years, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, while thousands have been displaced through home demolitions, land confiscation and settlement expansion. The apartheid wall, the theft of land and over 1,000 military checkpoints and metal gates have devastated Palestinian life and undermined hope for a two-state solution. The Education Minister's abuse of his position and departmental resources to frame the suffering of the Palestinian people as a green and orange issue is inappropriate. This is not political or a partisan matter; it is a humanitarian tragedy that resonates across communities in Northern Ireland. Christian members of the Palestinian community in Northern Ireland would like to invite Minister Givan to hear more about their fellow Christians who are living under Israeli occupation in east Jerusalem, including chronic underfunding of their schools and hospitals, the confiscation of Christian-owned land for settlement expansion, and severe planning restrictions that have crippled their housing prospects. Such discrimination has decimated the Jerusalem Christian population and forced many to leave their ancestral city. Numerous reports and footage show Israeli settlers harassing and assaulting Christian priests and nuns and desecrating churches while Israel failed to take action. Also, 3% of Gaza's Christian community were killed during the genocide, and three historic churches were destroyed. These are not the actions of a democratic state. Finally, we the Palestinian community invite the Education Minister to meet us, including those who have lost family members in the ongoing genocide, to hear our concerns and to understand the plight of our loved ones in Gaza, who will face the harsh winter months without food, healthcare or shelter."
It is our job as elected representatives to listen, feel and unite. What do we want for our children? Do we want more entrenchment and indifference, or do we want compassion and understanding? Many people have suffered in the conflict.
I say this sincerely to the Minister: if you truly believe in education, fact-finding and understanding, please listen to the people in the Palestinian community in Northern Ireland. Listen to their plea and meet them. I have been working with the people in that community for 18 months now, and they have been telling me of their families, who are moving to safe places — places where they are told that they will be safe, but they are then bombed. They have been denied food, and babies have been denied breast milk and formula. All that was done by a state that paid for your visit. Please listen to their stories; listen to their pain. The values of the Assembly were founded on peace, justice and our shared humanity. Those values seem to be more important right now than ever before in the whole world. The Minister has an opportunity to show leadership here and to introduce hope where there has been despair. There is an opportunity for us to move forward. Please, meet the Palestinian community and offer some hope in this very sorry situation. I urge you to take that opportunity.
727 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: 0.56 (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 (0.54).
- 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 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 | 0.45 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.04 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.07 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.21 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.47 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.24 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.56 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.25 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.20 |
| Adopts it (chosen) | 0.54 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.59 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.18 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.12 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.11 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:41 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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