Comparing Israel to the Nazis 'beyond the pale' says UUP leader as SDLP and DUP also condemn SS insignia at Londonderry parade - meanwhile republican group defends move calling Israel 'undeniably fascist'

The banner – which called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Ireland because of Israel’s bombing and blockade of Gaza – was hung from the city walls during a demonstration on Saturday afternoon.

The letters ‘S’ on the banner had been replaced with the runic symbols of the Nazi SS.

Alongside the banner was the red flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation in the EU and the USA (but not the UK).

Images of both had been posted online by republican fringe group Lasair Dhearg, which said its members and “other Socialist Republican activists” were behind the banner.

Meanwhile, Lasair Dhearg defended its move in the face of criticism, saying that Israel is “undeniably fascist”.

Doug Beattie, leader of the UUP (whose predecessor Jim Molyneaux was among the soldiers who liberated Bergen-Belsen death camp during World War Two), told the News Letter: “We have slipped into a position where we no longer understand our history and we’re not looking to see what’s important when we need compromise in conflict.

"The slaughter of Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas was an absolutely disgraceful abomination – and that needs to be called for what it is.

"That does not stop us saying we can support the Palestinian people while opposing terrorists.

"But where the line is crossed is when those people who say they are supporting the Palestinians then liken Israelis – who suffered so awfully in the Holocaust – to the very people, the Nazis, who perpetrated it against them.

"I think it goes beyond the pale. People need to stop. They need to think. They need, instead of creating confrontation, to try and promote peace.”

Meanwhile Foyle DUP MLA Gary Middleton said: “The use of such imagery would be disgraceful at any time, but [now come] in the aftermath of pre-meditated terrorist attacks by Hamas which took the lives of more than 1,400 innocent people.”

He added that “it highlights that despite the rhetoric, some in our society don’t want to see peaceful co-existence" between Israel and Palestine.

And the SDLP, whose leader Colum Eastwood was among the crowds of people in Londonderry who attended the protest where the banner was unveiled, said: “This display was clearly wrong. The SDLP has been clear that the indiscriminate murder of civilians in southern Israel and Gaza is a violation not only of international law but the human dignity of thousands of innocents.

“There should be an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid corridors to operate in Gaza and there must be a full, independent, international investigation into the actions of both Hamas and the state of Israel which, in our view, represent war crimes."

• – LASAIR DHEARG RESPONDS –

The News Letter sought comment about the banner and criticism of it from Lasair Dearg.

It responded by acknowledging that its activists had “made direct comparison of the Israeli State with fascism”.

It went on to say: “We did this because the actions of the Apartheid State of Israel are undeniably fascist.

“Israel has maintained effective military rule over Palestinians for almost all of its existence.

"Israeli State policy in all sectors of life favours one people over another, with Palestinian 'citizens' within the Israeli State being subject to different laws than those reserved for those from a Jewish background.

“Just like the Nazi SS wished to see the eradication of the Jewish people, the Zionist regime in Israel is intent on the complete eradication of the Palestinians.

"They do this by concentrating the Palestinian people into open-air prisons like Gaza and then systematically bombing them into annihilation.

“We support the view of 'Human Rights Watch' when it noted that 'Israeli authorities have facilitated the transfer of Jewish Israelis to the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] and granted them a superior status under the law as compared to Palestinians living in the same territory when it comes to civil rights, access to land, and freedom to move' – comments which were made in a scathing report published in April 2021 accusing Israel of 'apartheid', 'domination' and 'persecution'.

“Unlike other so-called Republicans we are resolute in our support for the Palestinian right to resist an illegal occupation and the colonisation of their land.

“Like the brave Jewish partisans who fought the anti-semitism of the German state during World War 2, brave Palestinians now fight the fascist state of Israel.

“There can be no 'Two-State Solution'; the only just outcome is the re-establishment of a Palestinian state encompassing all the occupied territories.

"Then, and only then, can the Muslim, Jewish and Christian peoples of Palestine live in peace. The same peace that existed for hundreds of years before imperialist nations gave away a land that was not theirs.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

• – PFLP AND SHUTZSTAFFEL –

'SS' stands for Schutzstaffel, which began as a Nazi street-fighting outfit in the 1920s but grew to become one of the most fanatical arms of the party's machine, playing a decisive role in both the aggression against Germany's neighbours and the Jewish Holocaust.

Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, one of the main architects of the Final Solution, the SS was the backbone of Einsatzgruppen squads which shot Jewish civilians and buried them in mass graves, and later oversaw the gassing of Jews in camps.

An estimated six million or so Jews were killed.

The SS also played a pivotal role in exterminating gentile populations in areas under Nazi occupation.

In Belarus alone – just one little part of the Eastern Front, which extended from Poland to the River Volga – the SS aided in the burning of over 650 villages (according to the official website of the Republic of Belarus), with the occupation leading to the death of over one-quarter of the entire Belorussian civilian population (according to the University of Southamption's history department).

The red-and-white flag on display in the photo at the top of this article belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been outlawed in the EU since at least 2009, and in the USA since 1997.

It is not proscribed in the UK, however a splinter group of it called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command is proscribed.

It plays a very small role in the Palestinian Legislative Council, where it holds three out of 132 seats.

The European Council on Foreign Relations says the group "opposes a two-state solution and instead calls for the creation of a democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine through armed struggle".

It adds that "the group’s armed military wing, known as the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, is particularly active in Gaza where it has fought against Israel alongside Hamas and PIJ militants".

• – WHAT IS LASAIR DHEARG? –

Lasair Dhearg means "red flame" and is a self-described socialist republican organisation.

It appears to be affiliated with the communist organisation the Connolly Youth Movement.

Founded in 2017, it claims to have activists in Scotland, England, Wales, Spain, Sweden, the USA, Australia, and elsewhere.

It gained media coverage in 2020 when its activists went around Belfast putting up unofficial road signs in place of the existing English-language ones, including a sign outside Queen's University Belfast rebranding it Mairead Farrell University (after the dead IRA icon).

Its most recent Easter commemoration was addressed by two former IRA convicts, and the group has denounced the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

In the wake of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli settlements on October 7, it had beamed the message "smash the Zionists" onto Belfast City Hall with a projector.

DUP MP Jim Shannon had objected and complained to police.

• Israel conflict latest: WATCH - Republican group Lasair Dhearg broadcasts the message 'smash the Zionists!' onto Belfast City Hall along with images of 'Palestinian resistance paragliders'

Lasair Dhearg's response was as follows: "We can confirm that we did indeed project images onto Belfast City Hall of Palestinian resistance fighters liberating their homeland from an illegal occupation.

"The conflict in Palestine will only be resolved with the destruction of the Zionist state, and Irish Republicans take this opportunity to send the Palestinian resistance our best regards and our full support."