The US and Palestine: It’s not too late for Ireland to live its values

Teachta Dála were on their feet in the Oireachtas showering praise to President Joe Biden as he spoke warmly of the “special relationship” between Ireland and the United States, nostalgically lecturing about our shared history and culture. The thundering applause echoed the thunder of a 2,000-pound US-made bomb landing on a densely populated area of Gaza leaving a 40ft crater and countless men, women and children dead or wounded just seven months later. For the past year Ireland has been stuck in an unjustifiable juxtaposition - on the one hand expressing horror at the vast loss of life, on the other maintaining cordial relations with President Biden and allowing US military planes to land in Shannon airport. This is the stark reality of Ireland’s complicity - how long can we live with it?

Turning a blind eye to this hypocrisy has consequences. It erodes the fabric of Irish society, numbs us to the loss of life, undermines our international legitimacy and is a betrayal of our values. Let us be clear, history will not be kind to those who stood by and watched what Amnesty this week called a genocide. Our children will look at us the way we have looked at those complicit in the horrors of the 20th and early 21st Centuries: With disgust, shame and fundamental lack of understanding.

But it is not too late to act. There are still people suffering and Ireland still has leverage and paths toward reducing further bloodshed. Firstly, we can block further landings of any US military aircraft in Shannon Airport until the US halts their arms sales to Israel. This may not have major material impact on the US, but it is an immediate and important signal that represents a new path.

Secondly, Ireland can clearly state its positions to the EU and work to rally other Member States around those positions. We should publicly label Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as war criminals (as accused by the ICC), and advocate for EU-wide sanctions on those and other Israeli government officials complicit in this ongoing atrocity. The evidence is overwhelming that they have used starvation as a tactic of war – we do not need to spend years waiting for international courts to confirm what we already know to be true. Ireland should also call out those EU Member States that diverge widely from us on these positions. The time for polite, backroom diplomacy is over. It remains a fundamental competency of each Member State to set their national positions on international issues, so what are we waiting for?

Finally, and as a method of last resort, we should advocate for wider sanctions on Israel and openly condemn those supporting their war in Gaza. Generally country-wide sanctions should be avoided due to their impact on entire populations rather than on individuals. However, in the midst of ongoing crimes against humanity and with no better options to stop it, Ireland and the EU should consider them. There is real leverage here – in 2022 Ireland alone made up nearly 4% of Israel’s exports. Failing to use the tools we have to end this war betrays who we are as a nation.

However, Israel is not acting alone. Ireland must confront the elephant(s) in the room: Germany, our fellow EU Member State, continues to offer unconditional support to Israel and has recently approved hundreds of millions (US$) worth of military equipment to Israel (though they are careful not to ship “weapons of war” only to avoid legal responsibility). Ireland should openly condemn Germany for its actions, referencing their clear desire to work with Israel to provide whatever military support they can and skirting international law where possible. Hiding behind history and guilt is no excuse for supporting present-day genocide.

The larger and more urgent elephant is the United States, our “friend” across the pond, who continue to supply massive levels of offensive weaponry to Israel. Compared with Germany, the quantity of weapons supplied by the US is far larger and the nature much more odious. Ireland should advocate for official EU condemnation of the US and explore how to use EU leverage to pressure the Biden (and incoming Trump) Administration to halt its offensive weapons supply. Even if unable to prevent the continued flow of arms, considering actions that extract a cost on the US would at a minimum serve as an important signal that no state is above the law, particularly when it comes to supporting those carrying out ethnic cleansing. Any measures implemented can be reversed when their complicity in the bloodshed ends. One could justify the US continuing to provide defensive military equipment to Israel (e.g., missile defence systems) while leveraging such weapons to prevent ongoing war crimes. But to keep offering unconditional support and offensive weapons is unjustifiable.

These actions risk potential harm to Ireland and other EU Member States from US economic retaliation at a time when many Member States are struggling with low growth rates and budget deficits. But we must ask ourselves as a country and a Union, are cheaper goods and energy worth being complicit in mass murder? Similarly, the US plays an important role in EU security, particularly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But not only is it dangerous and unsustainable to rely on an external state in a different continent for our territorial security, there are also clear signs that President-Elect Trump will pull back from supporting European Allies. Perhaps more importantly, broader questions about our relationship with the US must be asked: Do EU countries really share common values with a country actively supporting ethnic cleansing? Is this really an Ally we want to protect and share a military partnership with? In the short term, the US military presence will not vanish from the EU, but starting now we should begin a new phase of European independence from the United States, one that allows us to openly condemn a state sponsoring genocidal activities without fear of retribution. If we cannot do this, then we must ask ourselves how independent the EU really is?

Ireland must not forget that Hamas escalated the nearly century-long conflict between Israel and Palestinians with their horrific attack on October 7th. That indiscriminate violence was sickening and those culpable should be brought to justice. But we cannot and should not let that day of terror prevent us from speaking out about ongoing atrocities. Nothing can justify the extent of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Not self-defence, not historical trauma, not present-day anger.

Ireland’s ongoing silence, our cautious public performance, is woefully insufficient. Hundreds of thousands of children are starving, wounded and in peril. Tens of thousands have already perished. The next Government, whoever it may be, is morally obliged to do more for the Palestinian people. History will not be kind to those who looked away.

Written on 6th December 2024. Published on this site 6th January 2025.