WHAT CAN’T THEY SEE?

We learned something in the recent debate about Ireland’s Nations League games against Israel. We learned that the human capacity for denial, obfuscation, dishonesty and selfishness shorn of morality that let so many turn their eyes away from what the Nazis did are alive and well 80-90 years later.

We learned it from the FAI, who presented a seven page document of financial fiction to their own members to frighten them into endorsing a decision already made. We learned it from a Taoiseach who praised the games going ahead in February and then stood at the United Nations in September and said Gaza will shame the world. We learned it from a football association CEO who, when asked directly by an elected member of the Oireachtas whether Israel is committing genocide, said he was not qualified to adjudicate that — ignoring pronouncements from the International Court of Justice which is qualified. The head of Irish football exposed as denying a genocide we can all see.

But we learned other things too.

We learned that a young goalkeeper from Tallaght in Dublin called Gavin Bazunu sees it. He saw it clearly enough to withdraw from his national squad, to sacrifice his cap, to stand alone in a room full of people going the other way and say — no. Not me. Not this. His statement was read around the world. “There are few times in life when you get a chance to stand up for something bigger.” Gavin Bazunu is 23 years old and he already knows what that chance looks like when it arrives. He’s not looking to portray himself as a victim of ‘pressure’, he sees the true victims lying in the dust.

We learned that Macklemore sees it. One of the biggest names in contemporary music, who walked away from Ed Sheeran’s tour at professional cost because he could not in conscience perform, all while Ireland twisted and turned looking for excuses to play Israel.

We learned that Aaron Rowe and Beoga see it. The Irish singer-songwriter and traditional music group who both withdrew from the same tour, who said that as Irish people they know what genocide and occupation look like, so they refused to let their music be a backdrop to normalisation. They saw it and lost heavily financially in order to do the right thing.

A goalkeeper. A rapper. A trad band. A singer-songwriter. Different worlds, different platforms, different pressures. All seeing the same thing. All making the same choice.

And so the question that sits in the air — that I will leave hanging here without names attached, because the names attach themselves — is simply this. What do those people see that others don’t? What do they have that others lack? It isn’t information. The information is available to everyone. The ICJ has ruled. The UN has reported. The death toll is published daily. The children in the Messi shirts and the Ronaldo shirts are photographed in the rubble. If you don’t see it it’s because you don’t want to see it.

It isn’t courage exactly either, or not only courage. Bazunu is 23. Aaron Rowe is not a household name who can afford the controversy. Beoga are an Irish trad group, not an institution with lawyers and governance committees and fiduciary duties to hide behind like the shameless FAI.

What they have, I think, is something simpler and harder to manufacture than courage. They have the refusal to look away. They have decided that looking away is its own act, its own choice, its own statement. And they have decided they will not make that choice. They choose to see genocide and act in opposition to it. David Courell chose blinkers and spoof.

The capacity to look away — to find reasons, to defer, to wait for a court that has already called on us all to prevent genocide, to protect a ‘fixture’, to talk about pressure and unfairness while ignoring evil — that capacity is very old. It did not begin with the FAI. It did not begin with this genocide. It did not even begin with the Nazis. It’s older, and unfortunately it’s alive and kicking. Literally.

Gavin Bazunu, Macklemore, Beoga and Aaron Rowe didn’t look away.

The rest of us know who did.

#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine

Brendan Ogle is a  workers representative, an activist and campaigner, a political lobbyist and opinion shaker, a cancer survivor and mental health advocate. From rail disputes in Ireland and Britain to helping rescue the ESB pension scheme, to occupying Apollo House to facing personal trauma, loss and betrayal, for 3 decades Brendan Ogle has brought his unique combination of values and style to serve our community.