As war rages across Eastern Europe once again, we explore some of the language and unexpected voices who have suddenly discovered their opposition to violence.

Joe

Like many of you, I’ve been heartened to see over the last week just how many unexpected voices have, eventually, been raised against armed occupations, illegal invasions and the wholesale cutting down of civilians.

Imagine my relief at seeing football fans freely flying Ukrainian colours over the weekend without fear of fines and censures from UEFA. Having displayed such a change of heart I’ll assume we can look forward to European football’s governing body refunding the £8,616 fine handed down to Celtic FC fans in 2016 for flying Palestinian colours.

Similarly, we can look forward to apologies to Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury and Wesley Fofana for the lack of understanding given to their displaying of a Palestinian flag after last year’s FA Cup final. Better late than never.

I’ll add that since businesses tied to the Putin regime have been quite rightly sanctioned, we can look forward now to similar consequences for Lancashire’s own BAE Systems. 

Maybe like Roman Abramovich, the company can hand themselves over to a charitable trust once they come to realise that acting as gunrunner to Saudi Arabia isn’t quite the wholesome local industry success story their brochures would have us think.

I’ve also been encouraged by Boris Johnson’s U-turn against innocent civilians being cut down. 

I’m sure his newfound awareness would have been welcome at the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry last month, marking a progress in his thinking compared to a 2019 column where he appeared to bemoan the “travesty” of the soldiers who carried out the killings being tried. 

We might also have preferred him to have discovered his distaste for civilians being cut down in time for Israel’s attacks on Sheikh Jarrah last spring, but there we are.

But don’t worry, all along Johnson is being held to account by Blackburn’s own Jack Straw, who took to Times Radio last weekend to point out how sanctions against Russia are likely to hit Tory party donors. 

Who better than our former columnist to warn of the unintended consequences unprovoked invasions? Maybe mental health advocate and celebrity Burnley fan Alastair Campbell could compile a dossier?

Journalists have realised their poor choice of words. Here Charlie D'Agata rightly clarifies his comments

 

 

Alima

When Palestine was all over social media, thanks to the enthusiasm of many young people, media outlets had no choice but to report on it. Instagram became the main source of news, but not without argument for the use of the word ‘conflict’ to describe the attack from Israel’s military on the residents of Palestine.

The difference between that war and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is that Palestine has been suffering for many years before social media brought more publicity to it.
It’s not surprising then, that media around the world  is now referring to Ukraine as a ‘civilised’ country where people with ‘blonde hair and blue eyes’ are dying under the vicious attack by Russia.

While I sympathise with the conflict in Ukraine, I feel the reporting is detrimental to how we see other wars still going on in the world.

Palestine, Iraq, and Yemen to name a few, are all places where fighting has ruined the lives of innocent people. Ukraine is not alone in suffering the effects of a war, but they’re – to put it bluntly – in a predominantly white nation.

Kelly Cobiella, a journalist from NBC News said live on air: “These are not refugees from Syria, they’re Christian, they’re white.”

I’m sad for you Kelly, if your compassion only starts and ends with white Christians. We can feel sorry for the Ukrainians while also being sorry for the Palestinians and the Yemenis.

We’re now seeing town halls flying the Ukrainian flag, we’re seeing every councillor speak on the subject without reservation, but when Palestine’s situation came to light, there was hesitancy everywhere on whether it was okay to condemn the violence being inflicted.

Like Palestine when they attempted to retaliate to Israel, Ukraine has no choice but to defend itself, but this is still a war and not a two-sided conflict requiring understanding on both sides, like so many people assumed of Palestine at the time.

And if you hate war, you should hate it everywhere. 

By Journalists Joe Harrigan and Alima Nadeem