'Whole world is against Israel': Northern Irish MP Sammy Wilson bears witness to the Jewish state - Mathilda Heller

 

by Mathilda Heller

DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS: Wilson, of the Democratic Unionist Party, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel for a long time, and said that the Jewish State's democratic strength impressed him.

 

Northern Irish MP Sammy Wilson [left] stands at mountain outpost.

(photo credit: COURTESY) 

"I wanted to say with some authority, I’ve been there, I’ve spoken to people, I’ve seen on the ground what people have suffered,” Northern Irish MP Sammy Wilson told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, following his return from Israel.

Wilson – of the Democratic Unionist Party – has been an outspoken supporter of Israel for a long time, so his visit did not come as a surprise to people back home. He expected that his visit would attract criticism, because, in his words “nobody on the other side wants the truth to be shown.”

“I have heard it time and time again in the House of Commons when I stood up to defend Israel in debates in the House of Commons. I’ve a number of pro-Gaza MPs sit behind me, they usually hiss and shout and try and shout me down. And, of course, the Labour Party, on the other side now, is so dependent in maybe 200 or 300 of their constituencies on the Muslim vote that they seem to have closed their eyes to any kind of objectivity when it comes to Israel.”

Northern Irish lawmaker carries out fact-finding mission in Israel

Wilson wanted to see Israel for himself, so his main intention was to carry out a firsthand fact-finding mission of sorts so he could return home and relay what he witnessed with his own eyes.

He also told the Post that he strongly identifies with Israel as someone from Northern Ireland (he was born in the capital, Belfast).

Northern Irish MP Sammy Wilson stands in Majdal Shams. (credit: Courtesy)

“For 30 years we had terrorist organizations trying to destroy us, take us out of the United Kingdom, commit acts of genocide along the border, driving the Protestant population out. And there was also a hostile country, which was our neighbor [the Republic of Ireland], that actually made a claim to our territory until the year 1998, and also harbored terrorists.

“So I think there was an identification in Northern Ireland with the kind of issues which you face and the problems which you face, and I was interested in going along to talk to people on the ground, to talk to politicians, to talk to people who were involved in the army, and others, and just to hear from some of the victims of terrorism as well.”Multiple things surprised Wilson during his visit. Firstly, the existence of a “normality” in Israel that he didn’t expect during a war.

“I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, because for many years, when we had the troubles in Northern Ireland, people had the impression that you could hardly go out of the door of your home in Northern Ireland, for fear of being killed. And yet, despite the fact that there were car bombs going off, there were shootings, there were terrorist activities, people tried to live, lead a normal life. But I’ve got to say that’s one of the things that struck me, the normality.”

Another thing that he found striking was the strength of democracy in Israel.

“There’s this image of Israel being an autocratic state which seeks to stamp down on anybody who is not a Jew, but there is a 3.25% electoral threshold which enables an individual to form a party – we don’t have that kind of openness.”

“I mean, you’ve probably got a more open democracy than we have here in Northern Ireland,” he remarked. Unlike in Israel, in the UK, big parties dominate politics, and smaller groups find it challenging to acquire a political platform.

He also noted that it was easy for him to speak to politicians from different parties, and there was no attempt to stop him from speaking to opposition MKs.

The other thing that he found surprising was the degree of integration. He spoke to the Post of seeing Israeli Jewish soldiers next to Orthodox Jews, next to Muslim Arabs, next to Christians, in the streets of Jerusalem.

“There are places in Northern Ireland where I could not walk about or sit and have a cup of coffee in a café, if I was wearing the kind of identification that we saw as we walked around Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other places.

“There were people coming off duty, etc., sitting beside people who were clearly Muslim in cafés, walking through, buying from each other, having businesses beside each other, etc. I went to schools and the teachers were mixed, the pupils were mixed.”

One particularly memorable experience was a visit to a further education college in Tel Aviv, where Arab Israeli students study alongside Jewish Israeli students. The principal pointed out that some of the Arab students have families in Gaza, and some of the Jewish students have fought in Gaza, and yet “there wasn’t the tension that one would have expected.”

“I mean, if I were to wear a distinctive, say, Union Jack around me or wear a certain football shirt and go to parts of Belfast, I wouldn’t be able to walk without being molested. And yet people were clearly identified as being from one community or the other, and it was actually mixed there.”

Pro-Hamas protesters in UK 'blinded by either antisemitism or left-wing ideology'

During his visit, Wilson toured the kibbutzim in southern Israel where many of the massacres occurred on October 7, 2023, and also watched some of the footage. Having borne witness to such things, Wilson told the Post of the disgust he feels toward those who support Hamas back in the UK.

“That’s the kind of cruelty that your enemies are prepared to engage in, and yet we have people in the streets of London, people in the House of Commons, who support it. I have constituents who write me letters praising Hamas, defending their cause, wanting me to highlight the need to give them more support. And I just think to myself, you know, do these people even realize what they’re asking, what they’re supporting? Are they so blinded by either antisemitism or their left-wing ideology to close their eyes to all of this stuff?

“With those who can tolerate atrocities, then no argument, political argument, military argument, moral argument, is ever going to impact on them,” he added.

“I find the Left is especially defensive, and quite rightly so, of when women are violated, whether it’s domestic violence, sexual violence or rape. And yet people who support Hamas turn a blind eye to those kinds of atrocities [against Israelis].

“I’ve answered lots of letters since I came back. I’ve spoken to people who have come into my advice center to talk to me about it, and all I can do is challenge them. ‘If this happened in Northern Ireland, what would you expect our government to do? If this had happened to members of your family, what would you have expected your government to do?’ In most cases, they’ll say: ‘But one side’s as bad as the other.’ it’s hard to get through to people like that.”However, Wilson believes that there is still a whole group of people who “are now up for grabs.”

“The battle now is, you see those people at the margins who are beginning now to have doubts because of the endless propaganda, because of the drip-feed poison which comes from the likes of the BBC.”

Since his return, lots of people have asked Wilson to go to speak at churches, “where there’s a long, strong support for Israel,” and recount his experiences.

“I can actually say with some authority, I’ve been there, I’ve spoken to people, I’ve got the explanations, I’ve seen on the ground what people have suffered.”

'The whole world is against Israel'

Wilson also spoke to the Post of the reactions from Israelis when he said he was from Northern Ireland.

“I think, given the looks that we were given, the word ‘Ireland’ just seemed to trigger a hostile response. And quite rightly, when you think of the attitude Ireland has adopted, and the fact that Israel has even had to withdraw its embassy from Ireland.”

Nevertheless, the Israelis Wilson met were pleased someone from outside the country was prepared to hear their story. He said he thinks this reflects the “isolationist” attitude there is in Israel, where they feel “the whole world is against them.” 

The Irish government has been known to have an extreme and uncompromising anti-Israel rhetoric and policy, and over the years pushed for sanctions against Israel and various forms of boycott. Sinn Féin, a major republican party, has openly embraced the Palestinian cause.

Additionally, antisemitism is prevalent. A study earlier in 2025 by professors Motti Inbari of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Kirill Bumin of Boston University and Metropolitan College found antisemitic attitudes among Christians in Ireland are at “medieval” levels, in large part due to entrenched religious beliefs held by the Catholic community.

Wilson concurred that the Catholic Church has a large part to play in attitudes toward Jews, something which also can be seen in Spain.

While Wilson explained that Ireland today is a “very secular, left-wing country” and no longer “deeply religious and conservative Christian” like it was 15 years ago, 20 years ago, he argued that the antisemitism still stems from the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The Roman Catholic Church blames Jews for crucifying Jesus. That was deeply embedded in the psyche of Irish Catholics. And I think that that has driven a lot of the antisemitism that there is in Ireland. Today it’s pro-Palestinian in its manifestation, but I think that it’s antisemitic in its origin.”

Mathilda Heller

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-873823

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