Ireland has become the latest nation to say it will intervene in the\u00a0genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in a reflection of the country\u2019s long-standing position of solidarity with the Palestinian\u00a0cause. <\/p>\n
Ireland announced this week it would file its intervention, adding to growing international pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government to dial back its devastating assault on Gaza and end severe restrictions on food aid pushing Palestinians toward famine. <\/p>\n
In a speech on Wednesday, Irish\u00a0Foreign Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin said that both the Hamas\u00a0October 7\u00a0attack in Israel and Israel\u2019s war in Gaza \u201crepresents the blatant violation of international law on a mass scale.\u201d <\/p>\n
The case was brought to the ICJ by South Africa, and in an initial ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to \u201ctake all measures within its power\u201d to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide. <\/p>\n
According to reports, Ireland is expected to include in its intervention the argument that Israel\u2019s blocking of food aid to Gaza could be considered an act of genocide. <\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict has made it an outlier\u00a0among European governments. Zo\u00eb Lawlor, who leads the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), said there was \u201cdeep empathy and sympathy in Ireland with Palestinian people.\u201d <\/p>\n
That solidarity is largely born out of a shared experience of subjugation by an occupying state. The island nation was under English and then British rule for more than 800 years, after Anglo-Norman invaders seized huge stretches of land from the native Irish in the 12th\u00a0Century. <\/p>\n
\u201cIreland was Britain\u2019s oldest colony,\u201d said Jane Ohlmeyer, a history professor at Trinity College Dublin, pointing out that Ireland was unlike other Western European states, many of which were themselves imperial powers. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut like Palestine, (Ireland) had direct and sustained experience of imperialism,\u201d she said. That \u201cshared colonial experience\u201d between the Irish and Palestinians \u201chas undoubtedly shaped how people from Ireland engage with post-colonial conflicts.\u201d <\/p>\n
While under British control, Ireland was often subjected to violent and discriminatory rule from London, most infamously with\u00a0the\u00a0Great Potato Famine\u00a0in the 1840s, during which roughly 1 million people are estimated to have died from hunger after the potato crop repeatedly failed. The failure of the British government to adequately help the starving population forced over 1 million more to emigrate. <\/p>\n
Leo Varadkar, who recently resigned as prime minister\u00a0of Ireland, alluded to that during St. Patrick\u2019s Day commemorations at the White House this month, when he drew parallels between the Irish and Palestinian experiences. <\/p>\n
\u201cLeaders often ask me why the Irish have such empathy for the Palestinian people. And the answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes,\u201d Varadkar said. \u201cA story of displacement, of dispossession, national identity questioned or denied, forced emigration, discrimination, and now, hunger.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid,\u00a0the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, says Irish support comes from a history of shared experiences. <\/p>\n
NGOs and top international human rights officials have warned that Israel\u2019s restrictions on the entry of food aid will tip Gaza into famine. This month, the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said the practice may amount to using starvation as\u00a0a weapon of war. <\/p>\n
After many failed attempts to regain its sovereignty, both violent and peaceful, Ireland was partitioned by the British in 1921. Part of the province of Ulster in the north of the island remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. The remaining territory left the union a year later, becoming known as the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland. <\/p>\n
Ohlmeyer contends that Ireland \u201cprovided the template for partition\u201d in historic Palestine in 1948. <\/p>\n
Both partitions were created largely along religious lines. Ulster was famously referred to as a \u201cProtestant state for a Protestant people\u201d after its inception in 1921. In 1917, the British government declared there should be \u201ca national home for the Jewish people\u201d within historic Palestine. The United Nations presented a plan in 1947 to partition the land between Arabs and Jews, which the\u00a0Palestinians\u00a0rejected. <\/p>\n
Ronald Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem,\u00a0described the plan for a Jewish homeland\u00a0in Palestine as \u201ca little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism.\u201d <\/p>\n
During and after the 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, the Palestinians\u2019 struggle for liberation was seen by its residents through the prism of their own conflict. Republican Irish\u00a0nationalists, campaigning\u00a0to split from the UK, generally sympathized with\u00a0Palestinians.\u00a0British loyalists and unionists in Northern Ireland typically sided with Israel. <\/p>\n
In 1980, the Republic of Ireland became the\u00a0first European Union member\u00a0to declare a need for an independent Palestinian state and has since pushed for a two-state solution. The Irish government describes peace in the Middle East as a \u201ckey foreign policy priority\u201d and blames Israeli policies for \u201cmaking peace more and more difficult to achieve.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ireland consistently criticized Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza before the Hamas attacks on October 7, and since then, politicians and the public have expressed concern over what has been largely viewed as a heavy-handed Israeli response. <\/p>\n
Simon Harris, the country\u2019s new prime minister, is unlikely to take a softer stance. Ireland\u2019s youngest-ever leader highlighted the impact of the war on children in a speech to parliament in November, remarking: \u201cYou cannot build peace on the mass graves of children.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has not shied away from firing back at Ireland. Its heritage minister, Amihai Eliyahu, said in November that Palestinians in Gaza \u201ccan go to Ireland or deserts,\u201d among other incendiary comments that Netanyahu has tried to distance himself from. In February, Israel\u2019s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, said in an interview with radio station Newstalk that she only heard a \u201cone-sided view, portraying Israel as the only villain.\u201d <\/p>\n
When\u00a0Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli girl,\u00a0was released by Hamas after being held hostage\u00a0for 50 days, Varadkar\u2019s subsequent post on X saying she had been \u201clost\u201d caused an\u00a0uproar in Israel. <\/p>\n
The Irish ambassador was summoned to the Israeli foreign ministry, with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accusing Varadkar of losing his \u201cmoral compass\u201d and needing a \u201creality check.\u201d <\/p>\n
Opposition parties in Ireland have taken an even stronger stance than the government, particularly Sinn F\u00e9in, a party that supports the reunification of Ireland and is active on both sides of the border. Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, has said \u201cGaza cannot become the graveyard of\u00a0international law,\u201d and has at times called for the Israeli ambassador\u00a0to be expelled. <\/p>\n
Public support for the Palestinians has been put on display during nationwide demonstrations that have been held in cities and towns across Ireland since the Gaza war began. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, in all the roads in all the cities, I see the Palestinian flag,\u201d said Abdalmajid, the ambassador. \u201cIt\u2019s something that tells the Palestinians you are not alone in this world; there are other people in this world who know (how) you\u2019re suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lawlor, from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has participated in demonstrations for the past 25 weeks in either her home city of Limerick or the capital, Dublin. <\/p>\n