Dual citizens, Alan Shatter, Michael Danby & Israel
Alan Shatter resigned from the party Fine Gael some years ago and is making a return as an independent candidate for Dublin Rathdown.
Like candidates in neighboring Dublin Bay South, Mr Shatter wasn't fast enough to recover his old domain names. The domain name AlanShatter.ie has been taken by cybersquatters and they are trying to sell it to the highest bidder.
Somehow the cybersquatters lost interest in Mr Shatter's original domain name AlanShatter.com and it has been secured by Daniel Pocock, independent candidate for Dublin Bay South. The original Alan Shatter web site can be viewed here.
Mr Shatter is the only political leader who has simultaneously served as Ireland's Minister of Defence and Minister of Justice. Ironically, Mr Pocock used to be in the committee of the Elwood branch of the Australian Labor Party. The local member of federal parliament was Michael Danby.
Ireland's political system is very permissive of dual citizens while Australia's system requires dual citizens to renounce any additional citizenships if they are elected to public office. Everybody who identifies as Jewish is entitled to citizenship of Israel. It is interesting to note that while Michael Danby was in the Australian parliament for twenty one years, he was never accepted as a minister, as a member of the cabinet.
Danby had been editor of the Australia-Israel Review and after leaving parliament, he took another job with a Jewish cultural organization in Israel. This emphasizes the challenges that dual-citizens face when they are stretched between multiple communities.
Danby's father was a German Jew who fled to Australia after the Kristallnacht. Coincidentally, Daniel Pocock's birthday, 9 November, is the anniversary of the Kristallnacht and Pocock is sympathetic to all victims of totalitarianism, wherever they are.
Alan Shatter is a lawyer and so he has a much deeper understanding than most of us when it comes to some of the more significant legal questions about Israel and Palestine. It would be interesting to hear his feedback on these topics during the campaign:
On 22 May 2024, the Irish state formally recognized the State of Palestine. This is a dramatic change from the time when Mr Shatter was chariperson of the Irish Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee.
On 24 May 2024, the International Court of Justice made an order against Israel with reference to genocide.
On 26 May 2024, the first pro-Israel rally took place in Dublin and Shatter was pictured speaking in front of the Israeli flag:
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of leadership figures on both sides of the dispute, both the Israeli president and the Hamas leadership.
Decisions like these stand a head and shoulders above many of the other day-to-day stories of tragedy that appear in the news.
More significantly, Irish troops are currently stationed in Lebanon as peacekeepers and Israel ordered them to leave. Where does Mr Shatter stand in a situation like that? It is not an easy situation for any Irish-Israeli citizen.
During the MEP election campaign period in April and May 2024, Mr Pocock was fortunate to meet some of the Irish servicemen and their families having their leaving drinks before deployment to Lebanon. For the safety of the men and the families, the photo has been redacted. These were the drinks:
Ask the right questions
Vote [1] Daniel POCOCK
Daniel Pocock is ready to ask the difficult questions.
Pocock is not a dual-citizen any more. He acquired a third citizenship.
Activists on all sides of the dispute, whether they are supporters of Palestine or supporters of Israel, would be wise to contemplate Mr Pocock's concern about social control media giving them a false sense of empowerment:
Daniel Pocock is ready to ask the difficult questions.