Monday, July 14, 2003

Another dot in the big picture of how so many ideologically different terrorist groups work together.

Israel yesterday arrested a suspected bomb-maker said to be a former member of the Irish Republican Army in the West Bank and was questioning him on the extent of his contact with Palestinian militants, Israeli security sources said.

British and Irish newspapers had reported earlier that a manhunt was underway for a former IRA man suspected of training Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

These reports said he entered Israel on a British passport and slipped into the West Bank. The Israelis are on the alert for foreign elements in the Palestinian militancy after two British Muslims blew themselves up in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian links with Northern Ireland go back to the early days of the 30-year conflict between Catholic republicans fighting to end British rule and Protestant loyalists committed to maintaining it.

The Israeli security services believe a West Bank sniper who killed 10 Israeli soldiers and settlers in March, 2002, may have been an IRA-linked mercenary.

In Catholic districts of Belfast it is common to see pro-Palestinian slogans on walls, while in Protestant areas Israeli flags are sometimes flown.

Update:

Israel is to release Northern Irish journalist and pro-Palestinian activist John Morgan, who was arrested near Ramallah on Saturday in the mistaken belief that he was a member of the Real IRA who had travelled to the region to train Palestinian
militants in bomb-making.

It was apparently a case of mistaken identity. The fact does remain that there have in the past been connections between the IRA and Palestinian terrorist groups. The IRA is also notorious for giving training to South and Central American terrorist organizations. Specifically in the area of bomb-making.

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