Irish political leaders let their people down on Palestine

On a wet and miserable Sunday night in the mid-west of Ireland, it was amazing to see so many people turn up for a talk about Palestine.

Ennis, with a population of about 30,000, is not a big town and does not have city status, but it was an indication of how much the scenes of devastation from Gaza have moved ordinary Irish people that there were people left standing at the back of the hall.

The main speaker, Ali Abunimah, who is the co-founder and editor of The Electronic Intifada, showed a great knowledge of Ireland and Irish history. He lived in Dublin for a year before setting up one of the most prominent news websites focused on Palestine more than 20 years ago.

His young colleague, Abubaker Abed, was forced to cancel his appearance due to illness. Abubaker escaped the Gaza Genocide for a new life in Ireland a few months ago.

He was told by his family that he should get out when he got the opportunity to come and study in Ireland. Israel has relentlessly targeted Gaza journalists over the 23 months of genocide in the tiny strip of land, half the size of Co. Louth, where more than 70 per cent of the people are refugees from what is now called Israel.

It was a pity that Abubaker could not be with us, because a family member had heard him speak alongside Ali in Dublin two nights earlier. He gave a poignant talk about what it’s like to live through relentless massacres.

He described the horror of seeing a member of his own family, a young mother, being forced to use plastic bags as makeshift nappies for her young child. Along with baby formula, nappies are among the items blocked by the Israelis at the border during this relentless slaughter of the people of his homeland.

Imagine banning nappies in a “war” against so-called “terrorists”, where half the people are children.

But Ali provided a powerful speech, in which he made a clear distinction between the ordinary Irish people, who have protested so vocally for Palestine at rallies, vigils, and talks over the past 23 months, and the political leaders whose rhetoric is not matched by any significant action in response to the genocide.

He pointed out that the 1916 Easter Rising was a failed rebellion in Ireland, but it eventually led to the liberation of most of our country from British rule. To Ali, and others like him across the world, Ireland could be a beacon of hope in opposing colonisation and genocide.

“Ireland has to be something more than a country which takes its orders from Brussels and Washington,” he told the assembled audience in Co. Clare.

Ali himself is keenly aware of how political leaders across Europe are clamping down on ordinary people who speak out against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

While pensioners are being arrested by police in the UK for the crime of wearing ‘Palestine Action’ t-shirts, and a young woman from Dublin gets punched in the face by police in Germany for daring to speak out in favour of Palestinians, Ali himself was arrested and thrown into a cell in Switzerland before he had the chance to give a talk about Palestine.

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He was deported without being charged in January this year, and is now taking action against the Swiss authorities.

Ireland is known as the most “pro-Palestine” country in Europe and yet his talk really resonated with me. While statements from Tánaiste Simon Harris (our Deputy Prime Minister) may generate headlines across the globe, our government has shown reluctance or fear to take any meaningful action, such as sanctions, against the settler-colonial state which is currently committing genocide in Palestine.

There have been up to 80,000 people at marches for Palestine in Dublin for almost two years now, but our leaders continue to let us down. Here are just five ways in which they have failed to act on the outrage of ordinary Irish people in relation to the relentless onslaught against innocent men, women, and children in Palestine.

The Occupied Territories Bill: The Fine Gael party, of which Simon Harris is leader, has blocked this modest piece of legislation now for seven years. It is in complete compliance with international law. All it aims to do is ban goods from settlements in the occupied territories which are illegal anyway according to international law. Even though the outgoing Dáil and Seanad both voted in favour of it, a Fine Gael led government used an obscure mechanism called a “money message” to block it for years. When the 2020 coalition talks were being finalised, Simon Coveney of Fine Gael insisted that the Occupied Territories Bill be omitted from the Programme for Government — even though his two coalition partners, Fianna Fail and the Green Party, had included it in their manifestos. With rising anger over the scenes of slaughter in Gaza, they promised to enact it again this year, but put it on the long finger when it could have been adopted before the summer recess.

Allowing US troops to use Shannon: Shannon Airport, which is just a few minutes down the road from where Ali gave his talk on Sunday night, has been allowing US troops to stop off and refuel for almost 24 years at this stage. Nobody knows who or what is on those planes because the Irish authorities never check them. It is a cause of huge alarm to so many Irish people that the country which provides $3.8 billion each year in military aid to a country which is bombing children in tents is allowed to use one of our main civilian airports with impunity. Almost a year ago, Irish news website The Ditch reported that Shannon Airport was used to carry critical parts for F-16 fighter jets from Israel to the United States. A military engine weighing more than two tonnes passed through Shannon, from a country where two leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, have been issued with arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is abhorrent to most Irish people that a country which is allegedly using starvation as a method of warfare could be using an Irish airport to transport weapons. In a so-called “neutral” country.

Facilitating Israeli ‘war bonds’: There were muted celebrations in Ireland this week that our Central Bank did not renew an agreement to facilitate the sale of Israeli sovereign bonds, which have been marketed as a means to support Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. “Israel is at war” read the banner on the Israeli state website where the bonds could be bought, and which were renewed by the Central Bank of Ireland last year. The proceeds of these bonds are distributed across the Israeli economy, including boosting the Israeli military while it bombs hospitals, schools, mosques, and displaced families in tents in Gaza. But, while this was a rare moment of good news in response to Israel’s massacring of Palestinians, the decision was not taken by the Central Bank of Ireland. It was Israel which decided not to renew their bonds through the Irish regulator, their route into Europe since Brexit, and instead go through Luxembourg. The bonds are still being sold through the European Union and this was not some act of great courage by our political leaders or the Central Bank of Ireland.

Friends in horrendous places: The Fine Gael party has been in power now for 14 years. The current Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll McNeill TD, revived the Oireachtas Friends of Israel group in the Irish parliament in February 2022. She invited a pro-Israel speaker who has served in the “Israeli Defence Forces” to address politicians at Leinster House. In that same month, Amnesty International released a comprehensive report which found that Israel is an Apartheid state. Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem issued similar reports in the previous year.

For almost two years now, many Irish people have been horrified to see the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, give virtually unwavering support to Benyamin Netanyahu and how she assured him of the support of the European Union while Israel has been bombing displaced families in tents in Gaza. In October 2023, to the shock of many Irish people whose land has shared Palestine’s experience of being colonised, she projected the Israeli flag onto the European Commission’s head office in Brussels before heading off to Tel Aviv to declare Israel’s “right to defend itself”. In July of this year, Fine Gael’s four MEPs voted against a motion of no confidence in Von Der Leyen. Fine Gael’s group in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, is affiliated with Von Der Leyen’s Christian Democratic Union. Unlike so many Irish people, Fine Gael’s MEPs do not seem to be concerned that she has shown such strong support for a settler-colonial state which is bombing people in tents in Gaza and annexing land in the West Bank.

Fear of speaking out: In recent weeks a new narrative has emerged in Ireland, led by the likes of University of Galway law lecturer Larry Donnelly and economist Dan O’Brien. While they understand that Irish people are horrified by the scenes we are witnessing in Gaza every day, they believe that passing the Occupied Territories Bill will bring the wrath of the United States upon us and that we are making very powerful enemies in Washington DC. It seems that our entire economic model, more than a century after gaining partial independence, is based on kowtowing to the empire and never, ever speaking out. At a time of such polarisation, at a time of genocide, maybe it’s time to change our economic model.

Or at least find the courage to speak out. As Ali said on Sunday night, did generations of Irish people fight against colonisation and occupation just to become “another cog in the American empire”? Ordinary Irish people led the global campaign to end Apartheid in South Africa and ordinary Irish people are showing our leaders the way in opposing the genocide in Gaza. As comedian Tadhg Hickey, currently the on the global sumud flotilla to Gaza, said this week, he’d much rather be doing something else, but he is compelled to join activists all across the globe in attempting to break the siege of Gaza — because our politicians have completely failed to do so.

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