No sooner had the new government come into office than it signalled its willingness to either ditch or water down the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB). This starkly contrasts with the attitudes of most ordinary people in Ireland; a recent poll showed that 67% favour its enactment. This bill would ban the importation of goods and services from Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
Weaponising anti-Semitism
While the Government is blocking the passage of the OTB, they have no qualms in introducing legislation that amounts to a disgusting smear of the Palestine solidarity movement. Their Programme for Government has committed to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism advocated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) which essentially equates criticism of the Israeli State with bigotry and hatred of Jewish people. It argues that to think or say “that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” is anti-Semitic.
However, it is a self-evident fact that the Israeli State is inherently racist; it is a state built on the ideology of Jewish supremacy and the systemic oppression of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their historic homeland. In the face of the growing opposition to Palestinian oppression globally, the IHRA definition is being adopted by Western governments to weaponise the serious question of anti-Semitism and silence criticisms of the Israeli apartheid regime.
Defenders of Palestinian people?
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would like to give the impression that they are defenders of the rights of Palestinian people. Due to the widespread solidarity with Palestine amongst Irish working-class people, they are forced to take a position that is something of an outlier relative to other EU states. For example, they called for a ceasefire in Gaza early on in Israel’s genocidal war and, more recently, have signed up to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
However, this opposition has been superficial at best. Their decision to recognise the State of Palestine in May of last year comes 36 years after it was declared at the height of the First Intifada in 1988. They have allowed tons of weaponry destined for the Israeli apartheid state to go through Shannon Airport and Irish airspace. Another section of the Irish state supporting the Israeli regime is the Central Bank, which has been buying up the Israeli State’s “war bonds” as it seeks to shore up money to fund its murder machine.
Exporting weapons
Since the genocide began until the end of 2024, the Irish government granted 29 export licences for dual-use goods (goods that can be used for civilian and military use) to Israel worth €95 million. This is at a time when the Israeli civilian economy has plummeted, and military expenditure has shot up; it’s therefore not hard to surmise that the majority of these goods have been used to destroy Palestinian lives.
The Irish government also has a record of purchasing weaponry from the Israeli State and their merchants of death. The publication of recent state papers from the early 1990s found that Bertie Ahern, then Minister for Finance in a Fianna Fáil-led government overruled objections to purchasing such weapons in May 1992.
Many Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs are members of the Oireachtas Friends of Israel group. The young wing of the latter was quick to announce in October 2023 that they “stood with Israel” when it was clear that the Israeli regime was intent on carrying out a genocide against Gaza.
Subservient to imperialism
These actions should come as no surprise – these are the same parties that have facilitated US imperialism to wage wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by allowing hundreds of thousands of its troops to go through Shannon Airport.
All of this reflects that the Irish capitalist establishment is fundamentally beholden to the EU and US imperialism, the shameless backers of the Israeli State and its multiple crimes against the Palestinian people. These people are not the allies of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine; the interests of their class dictate otherwise. It is only the mass movement of ordinary people from below who have stood steadfastly against this genocide that can play this role.
In our workplaces, communities and colleges we need to do all we can to strike blows against the Israeli apartheid state and its imperialist backers. This means strike action, boycotts and protests to ensure that the US military is kicked out of Shannon, all weapons destined for Israel are stopped, the Occupied Territories Bill is implemented and all companies and institutions complicit in the genocide are targeted.