“To engage in that visit at such a politically sensitive time is nothing more than provocative coat-tailing, and the minister needs to account for his judgment as to why he was part of a propaganda mission for the Israeli government”
The Alliance Party have confirmed that they will back a motion of ‘no confidence’ in Education Minister Paul Givan.
The motion, which has been brought by People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll, follows the direction of the Minister to order his departmental press office to promote his visit to a school in the occupied territories.
Speaking at Stormont on Monday, Alliance’s deputy leader, Eóin Tennyson, said that the party shares the public’s “revulsion” at the trip.
“This morning the Alliance Party has had the opportunity to meet and consider our approach to the no-confidence motion in Minister Paul Givan. It was clear from those discussions that right across the party we shared the revulsion of pupils, parents and teachers,” he said.
“That the minister saw it appropriate to accept a trip funded by the Israeli government, a government that is accused of war crimes and genocide in the international courts, and there are particular questions for Paul in his ministerial capacity.
“First of all, as to why he felt it was appropriate to breach UK foreign policy by going beyond the green line and praising inclusive education, whilst just miles away in Gaza, a classroom of children has been killed every single day and over 90% of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
“To engage in that visit at such a politically sensitive time is nothing more than provocative coat-tailing, and the minister needs to account for his judgment as to why he was part of a propaganda mission for the Israeli government.”
Eóin added that there are “serious questions” for the Civil Service regarding why departmental resources were used to promote what he described as a “propaganda mission” and questioned why no officials were present, if Paul Givan was there in a ministerial capacity.
Eóin Tennyson added: “Alliance will support the motion of no confidence in Paul Givan, as quite simply, we have no confidence in him.
“Be it in relation to this issue, his hostile approach to integrated education, his mismanagement of his budget, and his failure of children with special educational needs in our system.
“Now we know that practically this motion won’t go anywhere, and next week Paul Givan will remain in post as Education Minister, and that too Alliance underlines the need for reform of our system and reform of these institutions to ensure that we’re actually capable as an Assembly of holding ministers to account and removing them from office when it is required when they cross that line in terms of what is acceptable.”
When asked to respond to Gavin Robinson’s analysis that this was an attack by the “pan-Republican Front”, Eóin Tennyson said: “Is Gavin Robinson seriously claiming that it is somehow republican to care about human rights, that it’s republican to care about international law, that it’s republican to care about 20,000 children who have been killed?
“And I think Gavin Robinson ought to be ashamed of his flagrant attempts to sectarianize this issue. This isn’t about orange or green. This isn’t about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. This is about being pro-human rights. It’s about being pro-humanity, and I think that ought to be where Gavin Robertson ought to focus his attention.”
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