Paul O’Connell

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Paul O’Connell

Paul O’Connell

@pmpoc

socialist | trade unionist | legal academic | foghlaimeoir Gaeilge | denouncing the abyss | ✊@This_is_Rise

Katılım Eylül 2016
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Paul O’Connell
Paul O’Connell@pmpoc·
I’m really proud to be part of this new initiative - we desperately need independent working class organisation and power, get involved and help build the better world we need and deserve ✊
Rise@This_is_Rise

On International Workers’ Day, we are proud to launch Rise! A movement dedicated to building independent working class power to change the world - on this May Day we must recommit ourselves to building a better world for all, find out more here: risemovement.co.uk/the-time-is-no…

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Nate George
Nate George@ngeorge00·
Israeli society is harvesting the bitter returns of Zionism.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim@academic_la

Israeli morale in this war is showing a significant amount of strain. Far more than in previous rounds. This is why: 1) About 30% of the population lacks adequate shelter/protected spaces 2) Northern reconstruction is moving slowly while coalition funds go toward draft exemptions 3) Politicians feed the public empty slogans ("total victory," "generational deterrence") that create unrealistic expectations and when unmet, they breed cynicism and despair 4) The IDF keeps claiming it destroyed the ability of Hezbollah and Iran to shoot missiles at Israel and yet the attacks continue unabated 5) After more than two years of continuous or repeated deployment, reservists are facing "unprecedented burnout". In 2024, combat reservists served an average of 136 days, with some exceeding 300 days. This has caused significant strain on marriages, careers, and small businesses. 6) Public frustration has peaked over the government's continued focus on Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft exemptions. This sense of "inequality of burden" deeply embitters the secular and national-religious sectors, who feel they are paying the price in blood and economic stability while others are legally excused 7) Experts describe the current situation as the country’s biggest-ever mental health crisis. PTSD diagnoses among troops rose by 70% monthly throughout 2024, and one in five people in the general population now suffers from severe functional impairment due to mental health issues 8) The cost of the endless wars is estimated to reach 500 billion shekels ($160 billion) over five years. This leads to budget cuts in education, welfare, and infrastructure to fund the defense deficit, directly impacting the daily quality of life for the average citizen 9) The feeling of becoming a "pariah state" weighs on morale. Polls show that 58% of Israelis believe their country is not respected internationally, contributing to a sense of "us against the world" that, while unifying for some, creates a sense of dread about the country's long-term future All of this is leading to more weakness and bitterness in Israeli society than ever before. It is unclear how much more of this endless war it can take before things start to unravel.

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Jonathan AC Brown
Jonathan AC Brown@JonathanACBrown·
I lived and traveled in Iran for months. In Tehran I lived with the family of a retired bank worker who saw me looking for housing. I roomed with his son for months, ate all my meals with them, and they never accepted any money. Once I was sick and throwing up and they all came into the bathroom and the dad stroked my head while I barfed and told me “Aybi nadare” (no shame, it’s ok). I traveled around most of the country by plane, train, bus, shared taxi, etc. Eventually I stopped booking hotels because I’d always meet people on the train, bus etc who’d insist I stay with them. The family of Iran/Iraq war vets from Yazd who took me to Taft for bbq in the mountains. The taxi driver from Rasht who made a bed for me on the floor of his tiny apartment because all the hotels were full. The only time a police officer talked to me was once to make sure I was ok. I never felt in any danger day or night. The land of Iran is as incredibly diverse as its people. There are mountainous rain forests and desert salt flats. I met among the most liberal and most conservative people there, and everything in between. Everyone was so kind it makes me cry with shame.
Pouya Alimagham | پويا عالي مقام@iPouya

Humanize Iran & Iranians. Someone posted on IG that when she, as an American, visited Iran, she was welcomed with open arms and generosity. Here is a photo of a man offering her cookies while on they were traveling on a bus. If you know Iranians, you know 💯 this is super common.

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Nimer Sultany
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany·
"Amid Israel’s deliberate imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian women face compounded and life-threatening consequences"
Amnesty International@amnesty

Over the past 29 months the devastating, multilayered impact of Israel’s ongoing genocide has pushed Palestinian women and girls in the occupied Gaza Strip to the brink. Women in Gaza are being denied the conditions needed to live and to give life safely. Read more 👇 amn.st/6011B61WAb

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Paul O’Connell
Paul O’Connell@pmpoc·
Another attack on our democratic rights - the Home Secretary happy to ban a protest which has taken place peacefully for 40 yrs - the same Home Secretary was incensed that police banned Macabi Tel Aviv’s violent hooligans from rampaging though Birmingham bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
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Amal Saad
Amal Saad@amalsaad_lb·
Deterrence or Nothing: Iran's Logic of Total War or Total Cease-Fire Iran’s rejection of a ceasefire is not simply a disagreement over timing or terms, but reflects a challenge to the entire framework through which negotiations with the US have been conducted for decades. The Islamic Republic is refusing to negotiate from a position in which its own capabilities are treated as the problem to be solved or contained, whether its nuclear program, missile arsenal, or its regional alliances and support for the Axis of Resistance, and is instead insisting that the issue at stake is US and Israeli aggression and the regional order that underpins it. In other words, Tehran seeks to overturn the longstanding US framework that treats negotiations essentially as arms control over Iran and behavioural disciplining and to redefine the negotiating agenda as one concerning the existing regional security order and the conduct of the US and Israel. This amounts to a struggle over agenda-setting power, or the framing of the bargaining space itself. Tehran is refusing to operate within the negotiating parameters Washington has historically imposed and is instead seeking to fundamentally reshape them, moving the objective from ceasefire management to a definitive end to the war, while keeping its political identity as a revolutionary Islamic Republic (and not merely an islamic republic) intact. Iran is also keen to ensure that the US and Israel's weaponization of diplomacy as a method of warfare becomes very costly for them. Twice now, in June 2025 and again in the current round, the US has used the cover of active diplomacy to strike Iran directly, reinforcing the perception that negotiations have functioned less as a path to conflict resolution than as an instrument of subterfuge. For Iranian officials, this only deepens the view that Iran’s long-practised strategic patience has been met not with good-faith negotiation but with strategic deception. The Islamic Republic also wants to ensure that negotiations can no longer be used to reproduce the cycle of war itself. Iranian leaders have been explicit about this shift. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf declared that Tehran is “absolutely not seeking a ceasefire,” arguing that Israel sustains its position through the recurring cycle of “war–negotiation–ceasefire and then war again,” while other senior officials have similarly indicated that Iran will only consider ending the war under conditions that ensure such a conflict cannot be easily resumed. As such, Tehran’s objective is not a temporary suspension of hostilities but a decisive settlement that changes the strategic conditions that have allowed war to recur. In this context, the conventional assumption in conflict resolution theory that negotiations become possible or "ripe" once both sides reach a mutually hurting stalemate, where neither can win outright and the costs of continued war become intolerable, does not apply here. Iran’s strategic aim is to absorb whatever pain is necessary, for as long as required, to ensure that the outcome of “total war” translates into a deterrence-restoring outcome that yields what might be described as a "total cease-fire": a comprehensive settlement in which the costs of resuming the conflict become prohibitive. Such an outcome would be qualitatively different from previous arrangements involving Iran and would necessarily extend beyond strictly bilateral understandings with Washington to encompass the broader regional deterrence system that Iran spearheads. In practice, this means that any durable settlement would have to account not only for Iran’s own security but also for the regional alliances that now operate under its security umbrella, including close allies such as Hizbullah who have become integral to its deterrence.
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Helyeh Doutaghi
Helyeh Doutaghi@Helyeh_Doutaghi·
An endless sea of people in Tehran is making its way toward Enghelab Square, though we are still far from the square itself, while warplanes have been flying overhead all morning with bombs, as people move to pledge their allegiance to their new leader. Iranians remain as determined as ever to expel the United States from the Persian Gulf. It is a beautiful day in Iran.
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Quds News Network
Quds News Network@QudsNen·
Irish writer Sally Rooney argues that standing in solidarity with Palestine is equivalent to fighting for life on earth.
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Lowkey
Lowkey@Lowkey0nline·
US-Israeli forces have struck 77 medical sites across Iran. Barbaric.
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Paul O’Connell
Paul O’Connell@pmpoc·
This wretched ghoul has shown unwavering support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and its wider crimes and now has the audacity to us Palestinian children as a social media gimmick - reprehensible
Yvette Cooper@YvetteCooperMP

This #IWD I’m making women and girls a key priority for the FCDO. Tackling the global emergency of violence and abuse, boosting women’s political and economic participation, and unlocking the potential of girls everywhere will now be at the heart of UK foreign policy.

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Nimer Sultany
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany·
1. What a huge loss. Professor Walid Khalidi was an intellectual titan. A doyen of modern Arab and Palestinian historians. A pioneer of debunking Zionist fictions, and uncovering historical truth. May he rest in peace. Here is a reminder of some of his important publications.
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Nimer Sultany
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany·
1. Your regular reminder that Israel's 1967 aggression against Egypt and Syria, leading to occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands, was also fraudulently justified as a "preemptive" or "preventive" war:
Sondos Asem@SondosAsem1

‘The strikes are clearly illegal, they’re a breach of the UN Charter, which prohibits unilateral resort to force between states… the requirements for lawful self-defence are not met’ - Professor Marko Milanovic

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Nimer Sultany
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany·
"These acts must be understood in their totality: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, by whatever means, whatever the cost and whatever crimes it takes. This environment is coercing Palestinians to leave their homes and life in a city where their roots run deep"
UN Special Procedures@UN_SPExperts

UN experts concerned by #Israel altering Jerusalem’s demographic composition, religious character & legal status. These acts constitute the ethnic cleansing of #Palestine, by whatever means, whatever the cost and whatever crimes it takes. ohchr.org/en/press-relea…

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Nimer Sultany
Nimer Sultany@NimerSultany·
For centuries, to justify colonialism, western states promoted the lie that they bequeath the rule of law on lawless, uncivilised nations. Now the instrumentality of international law is openly admitted. The west admits its own lawless barbarism. 1/2 archive.ph/v29yt
Nimer Sultany tweet media
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