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Soriek  1yr ago (text post)   1402 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 22

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum might be interested in. Feel free to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Ireland

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that Palestinian refugees will not be granted the same temporary protection as Ukrainians and claimed that Ukraine is in a “different category”. . .

While Varadkar said he thinks the treatment of Palestinian refugees is “very unfair” globally, he said that the group was “different” when it came to providing them with the same protection status as those fleeing Ukraine.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne, Varadkar said: “I think Ukraine is a different category. It’s a European country, it’s an EU candidate state, and we’ve given us a special recognition by granting temporary protection.

Varadkar said “Palestine is different” and said that he believes that it would be the responsibility of the “arab countries” to welcome the those who have been displaced, similar to how Ireland has with Ukraine’s.

Not granting Palestinians the same streamlined entry as Ukrainians doesn't necessarily mean much as there are still a lot of people coming in via the normal asylum system, but the suggestion that Arab countries should take care of Arabs (and the implication that European countries should take care of Europeans) is something I would have expected to be outside the Overton window. Europe is quite a varied place, but one of the more pro-refugee countries saying this makes me think the countries which have had problems with Arab migrants won't hesitate in doing the same (Ireland's migrants are nearly all EU, Ukraine, or Brazilian so Islam is not really a domestic issue).

Notably a lot of left-wing politicians went back on their past promises (this campaign goes back at least 2 years) to vote to expell the Israeli ambassador, a motion was passed today condemning the violence etc and the Sinn Fein leadership made no effort to include this condition in their suggested amendment of the wording. Sinn Fein has been quietly dropping some of their more radical proposals as they come closer to actually winning an election so this isn't a huge surprise, but getting softer on Israel is something that will annoy a lot of the more left-wing portions of their base.

Leo Varadkar is the son of a Marathi Hindu from Mumbai. That already predisposes him to a certain view of Islam. He has stayed in India for a extended durations and his medical internship was in KEM hospital, one of India's premier govt. medical hospitals. This means he met a lot of poor & conservative Indians. This makes him even more likely to have a realistic view of 3rd world Islam and the baggage that comes with it.

Having someone well informed that close to power must make a difference.

Good point, Varadkar’s Indian heritage doesn’t really get brought up that often so it’s easy to forget.

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