By Dónal Devlin
Small things say a lot. In 2018, the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB), which would ban the import of goods and services from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, was first introduced and later passed in the Dáil. This is quite a minimal sanction against the apartheid Zionist State that is now responsible for an over two-year genocide, which credible reports estimate has resulted in the deaths of over 680,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Seven years later, under massive pressure from US big business and successive US administrations, the OTB has yet to see the light of day. The Government used the bureaucratic measure of the “money message”, which gives it the power to block legislation that it deems to have a financial cost. In the case of the OTB, this is an inconsequential amount. It subsequently emerged that the then Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, privately assured the Israeli government that the legislation would not come into effect.
OTB – “Never going to happen”
All the evidence suggests that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to bury the OTB. The wishes of their imperial masters take precedence over the lives of Palestinians murdered in this ongoing holocaust. Last Sunday, the Irish Mail on Sunday quoted unnamed Ministers who said the bill is “never going to happen,” and that “the whole political climate has changed around this. There are myriad political reasons why this should not have been pursued, but now that the political situation has changed completely, it won’t be progressing.” Ministers have publicly distanced themselves from this position, but have only offered the vaguest of assurances that they need to discuss with the Attorney General to “consider how best to progress the legislation”.
This is linked with the strong ties that exist between Irish and Israeli capitalism. A recent report entitled The Price of Prosperity: How US FDI is Enabling Genocide in Gaza and Eroding Our Neutrality (by Paulie Doyle, Patrick Bresnihan, and Patrick Brodie) noted that Ireland is now Israel’s largest trading partner. Many of the multinationals that invest in Ireland are deeply tied to the genocide, notably big tech companies such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, along with social media companies such as Meta.
Herzog Park debacle
In the last week, another issue has sprung up that once again highlights the subservience of the Irish establishment towards US imperialism, and linked to that, apartheid Israel. This centred around the proposal to rename a park in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. Herzog Park was named after the former Israeli President Chaim Herzog in 1995. This proposal has elicited performative outrage from various quarters within Israel, the United States and here in Ireland. Simon Harris took to X to state that: “We are an inclusive Republic. This proposal is offensive to that principle.” Similarly, Micheál Martin came out against the proposal and intervened with officials in Dublin City Council to ensure it was withdrawn. In the US, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated that Dublin was a “cesspool of anti-Semitism”, because of the decision.
Lindsey’s comments are typical of those who are defenders of the Israeli State and the criminal actions of its leaders. When they can’t win the debate, they cynically change the subject to the question of anti-Semitism. Yes, Chaim Herzog was born in Ireland and was part of the small Jewish community that made an important contribution to Irish society, including in the struggle against British imperialism in the revolutionary period of 1913-1923. Socialists have always been the first to welcome and stand in solidarity with minorities that have sought to make Ireland their home. In 1903, James Connolly, when standing in a local election in Dublin 8, did just that by producing a leaflet in Yiddish welcoming the new and growing Jewish community in the area. This was the son of migrants who fled the horrors of post-famine Ireland, welcoming those who fled the horrific anti-Semitic oppression and pogroms of Tsarist Russia.
All the critics of the decision to rename Herzog Park want to conveniently sidestep the role Chaim Herzog played upon his emigration to Palestine in 1935, focusing only on his Irish roots. Ironically, it is they who wish to “erase history”, a charge levelled at those who have proposed renaming the park. In reality, his life personifies everything evil about the Zionist project and the Israeli State it spawned.
Who is Chaim Herzog?
Upon Herzog’s arrival in Palestine, he joined the Haganah, a Zionist militia set up in 1920 that worked to enforce the settler colonial Zionist project. He fought in this militia during the Great Palestinian Arab Revolt, which saw the longest general strike in history as Palestinians revolted against settler colonialism and British colonial rule. The Haganah worked closely with British imperialism to quell the revolt; an estimated 10% of Palestinian men were killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled from 1936 until the end of the revolt in 1939.
The disarming of Palestinians during this period and the repression they underwent paved the way for the Nakba of 1947-1948, which saw the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their historic homeland, the massacre of 15,000 and the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages, towns and cities. Herzog fought in the Zionist militias during this period and played a key role in the military intelligence, intelligence that was crucial for carrying out the Nakba.
The Zionist State was founded in 1948 based on ethnic cleansing and the destruction of Palestine; it is a racist, Jewish supremacist and settler colonial state. Herzog was a crucial figure in this state, serving as head of its military intelligence from 1950 until 1962. During this period, Palestinians attempting to return to Palestine were shot dead by Israeli soldiers, and those living within the Israeli State lived under military rule up until 1965.
In June 1967, the Israeli regime invaded and occupied the remainder of historic Palestine, along with the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Chaim Herzog was the first Military Governor of the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. By his own admission (November 1991), he was responsible for the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. On top of this, Palestinians lived under a regime of military rule, and still do to this day, based on continual curfews and arrests without trial. It also saw the mass destruction of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem and Qalqilya. Herzog boasted about this destruction in the dehumanising, racist language characteristic of Israeli leaders. An article in Middle East Eye described how:
“Herzog was also the first Israeli governor of the occupied Palestinian territories and took credit for bulldozing and depopulating the Mughrabi Quarter of East Jerusalem, which he referred to as a “toilet”, in 1967.”
Without any shame and as the Israeli State’s Ambassador to the UN, he argued against the motion in the UN in 1975 against the claim that “Zionism is racism”, something his own words and actions showed to be self-evident.
Alternative names
Clearly, we should not be honouring someone with this record, and it is shameful to suggest that to rename it would be anti-Semitic. There are also good alternatives to this park’s name. Rather than name it after an Israeli war criminal, it could be renamed to mark the suffering of the Palestinian victims of the rule of people like Chaim Herzog. Some have suggested Hind Rijab Park, a Palestinian girl brutally murdered by the Israeli Occupying Forces during the Gaza genocide. Other suggestions have been to call it “Free Palestine Park” or “Gaza Park”.
Alternatively, the park could be named after Jewish people who have made valuable contributions to the struggle for revolutionary and progressive change and to Ireland’s artistic and cultural life. Suggestions have included Max Levitas, a socialist born in Portobello in Dublin 8, who participated in the celebrated anti-fascist march that became known as the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. Another suggestion was Estella Solomons, a modernist artist born in Dublin to a prominent Jewish family, who fought in Cumann na mBan during the War of Independence, concealing weaponry and giving shelter to IRA members on the run in her studio.
A subservient ruling class
The controversy surrounding Herzog Park and attempts to ditch the OTB take place against the ongoing horror in Gaza. The Irish capitalist establishment is hoping that this question can recede from public consciousness. The strong sentiment of solidarity with Palestine in Ireland flows from the horror of the genocide itself, but also speaks to an empathy that stems from our own history of genocidal colonial rule. Consequently, both FF and FG have been forced to adopt a more critical stance towards Israel over the last two years. However, they are ill at ease with taking a stance that will put them at odds with US and European capitalism; to do so is deeply counterintuitive for them.
For Ireland’s ruling class, support for this system will always trump any moral outrage they display about the immense suffering of the Palestinian people. Their system is rotten – the time to build a socialist alternative to it is now.
