Israel-Gaza: DUP peer says many Unison trade union members will feel regional boss 'is not speaking for them' after she addressed Palestine solidarity rally

Mr Sheehan, a former IRA bomber, spoke out against the Israeli bombing of Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 incursion into Israel by Hamas.

There have been rolling rallies and vigils across the UK and Ireland since the Hamas attack, overwhelmingly focussing on the suffering of Palestinians.

The rally in Belfast on Sunday followed a march through the city centre attended by thousands of people, with speakers delivering speeches at the City Hall afterwards.

Patricia McKeown, the regional secretary of Unison, was among them.

Video footage of the event captures her saying the following outside City Hall: “We stand for justice and human rights for Palestinian people.

"And those people around the globe include the Christian churches in Kairos, they include the Jewish people defending Palestinian human rights in Israel, like B'Tselem.

"They include Jewish people like Jewish Voice for Peace who are uncompromising in declaring that this is the fault of Israel and the superpowers.

"A few months ago a Palestinian [sic] settler shot dead a five-year-old girl, a five-year-old Palestinian girl.

"The courts exonerated him because the life of a Palestinian child is not worth anything.

"We say: 'The lives of Palestinian children and Israeli children are precious and equal – they should not be targets by anyone'. But the Palestinian children have been targets for 75 years.

"All of us standing here know what the story is. But I cannot blame ordinary people who only get their information from the media.

"It has been quoted so many times over the last week, the words of Malcolm X, when he said ‘if the media has its way we will end up hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor’.”

Other footage from the rally shows her also saying: “We share this platform with people around the globe who stand for the same thing we stand for - justice and human rights for Palestinian people.

"From the river to the sea, there is a land – it is a land on which Palestinians and Jews could live in equality, with human rights, and in peace.

"That's how it should've been, that's how it could be. We are under an obligation to keep speaking the truth and keep speaking the truth to power because, eventually, we will make them listen.”

Her union represents nurses, paramedics, pharmacy techs, cleaners, and cooks, among others.

Unison had raised the ire of unionists in 2021 when the union appeared to object to any assistance from UK military personnel when it came to combating Covid-19 in Northern Ireland.

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Lord Weir, who had addressed a pro-Israeli vigil in Belfast later on Sunday, told the News Letter: “Personally speaking, I think first of all that if you're speaking either as a rep or on behalf of a trade union, I'd have thought that really focussing your attentions on trade disputes rather than other international issues.

"I'm sure many members of Unison or indeed other trade unions would feel on this particular issue that she doesn't speak for them.

"I suspect as with society as a whole there'll be a wide range of views within the trade union as to what particular approach is taken.”

He criticised the mention of Palestinian children having been targets for 75 years in particular, saying “we know that Jewish people in Israel have in many ways been targets since the inception of the State of Israel, and have been targeted for three-quarters of a century – and obviously before that were victims of the greatest crime in humanity: namely, the Holocaust”.

The News Letter sought to contact her and Unison for comment on Lord Weir’s remarks, but no response had been received at time of writing.

Speaking of the previous nine days of rallies in general, Lord Weir said: “It's the absence of what's said as much as what is said. I think everyone will agree everyone's life is precious and needs protected.

"However, to constantly avoid highlighting that the aggressor in this case was Hamas, and giving Hamas a by-ball by not mentioning [them] and not condemning their initial actions, does show a deep sense of bias in a number of these rallies.”

Unison does have an official position on Palestine, set out as follows:

"The union supports calls for the Israeli government to:

“Withdraw to the 1967 borders, including the withdrawal of troops, the removal of settlements and the demolition of the separation wall;

“End the land, sea and air blockade of Gaza;

“Give Palestinian refugees the right of return;

“And release all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, including children and those held on administrative detention, without charges or trial.”