Israel-Gaza: Ireland's Sympathy Tests Europe's Moral Cowardice

Edited by Madison Challis

On a cold, sharp evening in late November, a small independent art gallery in Galway city held a poignant event to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause. It's bare concrete floor was adorned with warm tungsten bulbs. A crowd had gathered in the reception, where the now ubiquitous flag of Palestine hung near the entrance.

A generous display of food was spread out on a large table, which included wrapped grape leaves, falafel, and an absurd amount of fresh hummus and flatbread. Homemade vials of za’atar herb mix were being gifted to attendees, which is still in my kitchen. The welcoming atmosphere jarred with the reason for the gathering. In the main gallery, the crowd quietened, and the screening of the documentary ‘1948: Creation and Catastrophe’ began. A historical overview of the events that led to the creation of Israel and the violent displacement of seven hundred thousand Palestinians in the process, the film presents its subject matter-of-factly while not attempting to minimise the emotional devastation of the conflict. It is a damning indictment of the Israeli state’s merciless subjugation of the Palestinians to ethnic cleansing, then and now. It’s available to watch on Youtube, for those who are interested. 

After the screening, the audience was encouraged to ask questions they may have nursed about the unfolding atrocities in Gaza buried in their pockets. Some asked about the seeming inability of Arab governments to materially help their beleaguered neighbours. Others lamented the impunity with which Israel commits its war crimes and the nauseating sentimentality Joe Biden has for Ireland. Towards the end, Roisin El Cherif, a Palestinian-Irish artist, sang a haunting rendition of the song ‘Holm’ (A Dream) by Emel without any backing vocals or instruments. The song is a reflection on wanting to escape an oppressive, painful reality via your dreams, to a place where you can close your eyes, “rise and fly in a new sky and forget (your) sorrows.” 

Ireland’s Relationship with Palestine

The event was one of dozens that have taken place across Ireland since the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, to express solidarity with the two million Gazans who have faced death, disease, injury, starvation, displacement, despair, and isolation for the past four months. While empathy for the plight of Palestinians is obviously not a uniquely Irish political trait, the country has emerged as an outlier among Western nations when it comes to the support it extends to Palestine, at least from its general public. The Irish government, while delivering a gluttony of sympathetic statements, has so far been remarkably careful not to criticise Israeli policy too harshly, lest it make this year’s St.Patrick’s Day White House dinner even more agonising. A November poll by the Irish Independent found that 51% of respondents favoured Palestine in the current conflict, while just 10% favoured Israel. A further 29% favoured both sides, with the remaining 10% unsure. A similar poll conducted by YouGov in the U.K. concluded that just 19% were more sympathetic to Palestine, with an equal amount more sympathetic to Israel. Recently, the Overton Window of what has become politically and socially acceptable to say about Israeli policy towards Palestinians has broadened. This month, Amnesty International found that, according to a survey on behalf of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine (IAACP), an overwhelming 71% of Irish people surveyed now believe that Palestinians live under a system of apartheid imposed by Israel. This steady rise in attention to the plight of Gaza can be found across the country. Rallies in Dublin have regularly brought tens of thousands of citizens to the streets. A collective of almost two thousand artists to date has signed a pledge not to perform in Israel, or to receive any patronage from Israeli organisations. Late last year, there was an unlikely pairing of Jeremy Corbyn and Belfast-based rap trio Kneecap. While touring in the U.K. the openly political group sat down with Corbyn for a coffee and a chat about their long standing sympathy for Palestine, due to parallels in our histories. “Occupation is occupation, wherever it is in the world.” 

Unsurprisingly, Ireland’s history as a British colony and a subjugated people has given it a stronger reason to identify with Palestine than other Western nations. Unlike its neighbours, Ireland was never an imperial power and was long viewed as the “poor man of Europe”, due to its relatively high poverty up until the Celtic Tiger. Highlighted in the excellent book ‘The Hundred Years War on Palestine’ by Rashid Khalidi is the role of the man most responsible for the entrenched violence and division in the region, Arthur Balfour. He was the author of the Balfour Declaration, which in 1917 promised the growing Zionist movement in Europe “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. Before his involvement in Palestine, Balfour was also the chief secretary of Ireland for five years, where he oversaw several indiscriminate killings of civilians. The man was so deeply hated that he earned the nickname “Bloody Balfour”. Balfour was not alone in exporting the suppression tactics against Ireland to other colonies. Shortly after Ireland’s War of Independence, the infamous Black and Tans soldiers responsible for numerous acts of terror against the Irish were sent to Palestine by Winston Churchill to suppress and intimidate the local resistance movements.

Europe’s Moral Cowardice

Ireland’s current government, forever entangled in an abusive centre-right duopoly, has taken its criticisms of Israel’s bombing campaign a step further than most Western leaders. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar recently remarked that his government was deeply concerned Israel had committed war crimes. Unfortunately, that is where the condemnations stop short. There has been a noted absence of direct action taken against Israel for its collective punishment of Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7th. This clashes sharply with the near-unified Western response of punishing sanctions against Russia following its brutal invasion of Ukraine. The gorge between popular public sentiment and the neutered positions of Ireland’s government is indicative of broader political feelings in Europe surrounding this crisis. In the U.K. a strong majority of the British public support an immediate ceasefire, as illustrated by people showing up on London’s streets in the hundreds of thousands demanding such action. At the same time, the Tories seem determined to classify any legitimate criticism of the Israeli state and military as blanket anti-Semitism, as has Germany’s government in recent months with aggressive police crackdowns on pro-Palestine rallies since October.

This naked moral hypocrisy, where the atrocities of one allied state are held up as justifiable, while a non-allied state’s similar conduct invites economic and cultural boycotts has only attracted more ordinary people to the plight of Palestinians. 

Nowhere is this wrenching display more obvious than in the recent case South Africa took against Israel in the I.C.J., accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s crimes against humanity, its allies keep their heads buried in the sand. In dismissing South Africa’s case as “meritless” and “absurd”, the U.S. has cemented the Global South’s deep distrust of it for years to come, deservedly so. Speaking on behalf of South Africa in The Hague, the Irish barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh conveyed with clear and direct language just how unconscionable Israel’s actions have been. She informed the court of a newly coined term that has emerged from the rubble of Gaza, that of “W.C.N.S.F.” (Wounded Child, No Surviving Family). The average person does not even need to read the eighty-four page case South Africa has submitted to be convinced of Israel’s intentions. A cursory look at our newsfeeds on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter show us video after video of wailing children unduring amputation without anaesthesia. Hospitals are operating under a barrage of airstrikes and rolling blackouts. Rescue workers are trying in vain to pull bloodsoaked people out of the ruins of their homes. Refugees in their hundreds are coming under fire from the I.D.F. for scrambling to access any scraps of aid they can. As Ní Ghrálaigh said to the court, “this is the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time”. 

Israel’s Empathy Deficit

Among Israel’s government, there is no shortage of dehumanising language levelled against Palestinians. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s now-infamous declaration to impose a complete siege on Gaza, because “we are dealing with human animals and we are acting accordingly.” There have been at least two Israeli MPs who have called for a nuclear weapon to be dropped on Gaza, demanding that the territory be “crushed and flattened without mercy”. Most glaringly, Netanyahu’s recent admission that he has no intention of recognising a Palestinian state after the assault because it “collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?” 

I don’t know, Ben. Perhaps you recognise the fact that there are millions of displaced, stateless people, under your government’s illegal occupation who also have a right to sovereignty and self-determination. That would be a start. Unfortunately, this sentiment is the status quo among many Israelis since the Hamas attacks on October 7th. A recent Times of Israel report, as well as an essay by The New Yorker’s David Remnick highlight that most Israelis want the war effort to continue unobstructed. Many of them live in an information bubble, where their media usually frame events from a military perspective. Strategy updates, soldier deaths, and coverage of international reaction. They are not exposed to the full extent of the horror across the fence. And if they are, many don’t seem to care. A dive into r/Israel to gauge the mood of younger, more secular Israelis doesn’t encourage hope. Post after post discussing the crisis in Gaza, regardless of the context, is littered with commenters flatly admitting that there is no upper limit to dead civilians that will change their minds. Many of them endorse the push to forcibly move all Gazans across the Egyptian border. Others think that the most effective way to manage Gaza “the day after” is to shoot anyone who attempts to cross the Israeli border on sight. There are Israeli real estate firms advertising settlements built over the ruins of Gaza. Their slogan reads “A house on the beach is not a dream!” Even accounting for the profound societal trauma of October 7th, all of these perspectives point to a broader trend of dehumanisation, an essential tool in justifying every inhumane act the state subjects Palestinians to.

The Path Ahead

Earlier this month, the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised a speaking event in the Galway Mechanics Institute. The group has been at the heart of all major Irish demonstrations in support of Palestine since October. Almost two hundred people had crammed into a large ornate space where the heat sprinted out the door. The crowd had gathered to hear the thoughts of Rania Muhareb, a Hardiman PhD scholar for the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway and Zoë Lawlor, the Chair of the I.P.S.C. It was the day of The Hague’s court hearing from the South African case against Israel, and many people were anxious to hear a Palestinian perspective. 

After a presentation by Lawlor on the history of the conflict, and the conditions that have led to the rise of groups like Hamas in Gaza, the room’s attention was on Muhareb. Muhareb explained to the room that the short-term goal of the case is to build pressure for an immediate ceasefire and a military withdrawal of Israel from Gaza. While the symbolic significance of South Africa taking this case is a testament to the moral weight placed on it, Muhareb acknowledged that the ultimate ruling, whatever the outcome, cannot be enforced. “Even a victory in the courtroom cannot liberate Palestine on its own” she clarified to the crowd. She also explained that Israel’s case, where it claims the right of self-defense against Hamas, could be read as illegitimate given that it is an occupying power, according to a previous ruling. To finish off the evening, artists Róisín El Cherif and Katie O’Connor were invited to perform. A local artist and musician, O’Connor’s newest piece “Breathe Memory” is a sombre meditation on the suffocating effects of the war on ordinary Gazans, who have to still breathe the polluted, smoke-filled air of the strip to stay alive.

El Cherif, having performed several concerts in aid of Gaza, gave her rendition of the famous Arabic resistance song, ‘Zahrat al Mada’en’ (Flower of the Cities). Like the November event, she sang alone without instruments or backing vocals. Written in 1964, it tells the story of Jerusalem’s occupation from the perspective of displaced Palestinians who mourn “for the children without a house”, where “peace was martyred in the homeland of peace”. 

At the time of publication, the I.C.J. has ruled that Israel must do all that it can to prevent genocide against Gaza and to increase the level of aid being delivered, stopping short of calling for a ceasefire. It remains to be seen if Israel will take any of the requests seriously, as their initial response has been to double down on their war efforts. With support for the war among Israelis remaining high and with Western governments moving to suspend U.N.R.W.A. aid after a small number of employees have been linked to the October 7th attacks, ordinary Gazans continue to live under siege. Most of its population are displaced and at high risk of famine. Persistence by ordinary people in demanding a ceasefire, as well as sanctions against Israel are crucial to both de-escalation of the violence and de-legitimation of the apartheid Israeli government.

After the event ended, I went for a walk through Galway city centre. There was an icy breeze down by the historic riverfront. In the public park where several Gaza rallies have been held since October, an Israeli hotel chain loomed over the space like a grey monolith. Across the water, a traditional Galway sailing boat was moored in the harbour. On another evening late last year, its sails were illuminated in the flag of Palestine. 

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/history-irelands-support-palestine