On December 15, 2024, Israel pulled down the shutters to its embassy in Dublin. Israel’s Foreign Minister accused Ireland of “anti-Semitic rhetoric” and of crossing “every red line” in their relations. Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Simon Harris of the Fine Gael party was quick to reject that accusation, while asserting Ireland’s stance of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Earlier in May 2024, Ireland joined Spain and Norway in recognising the state of Palestine. And two weeks ago, Ireland joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Ireland has thus become the only country in Europe that has irked the Israeli government to this extent. But the Irish are rejoicing: social media has been aflutter with images of t-shirts with a watermelon (symbolic of the black-white-green-red Palestinian flag) and the word “Paddyistinian”.
“I got my 12-year-old daughter a hair clip in the shape of a sliced watermelon. She wears it to school, and her classmates know what it means,” said Máire Ní Mhórdha, an anthropologist at Maynooth University. The single mother of three regularly takes her children to Palestine solidarity events in their town of Navan, northwest of Dublin. “It is something that I don’t think of; it is the bare minimum I could do.”
Ever since Israel forces escalated the violence in Gaza from October 2023, there have been local demonstrations as well as massive rallies in the island country’s capital at least once a month, bringing together at least 2,000 in each, with people from other parts of the country travelling to participate in them. Many bring along their children and pets, many march along in their wheelchairs. The nearly 4-km rallies culminate at a set-up stage, with speeches and music sung by Irish, Palestinian, and other musicians. Richard Boyd-Barrett is often seen among the sea of people wearing a keffiyeh, in his trademark black jumper and jeans.
Mr. Boyd-Barrett, who belongs to political party called People Before Profit (PBP), was re-elected as the Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament) in the general election that took place in November 2024. He was one of the 10 politicians present during a 10-party televised election debate. During the two-hour debate, issues of cost of living, housing, immigration and infrastructure were animatedly debated. The fifth issue, during the halfway mark, was about Ireland’s political response to the violence in Palestine.
Popular victory
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Boyd-Barrett said that it is still a victory for the popular mobilisations in Ireland that Palestine became a core election agenda. “Religious sectarianism was used as a tool to enforce Ireland’s colonial subjugation. Ireland witnessed a genocide in the form of what is called the famine. But it was actually enforced starvation by the British empire, which was closely connected to an apartheid-style system that systematically discriminated against Catholics in favour of Protestants. We have seen the same being inflicted on Palestinians, first by the British empire and then by the Zionist state. But there are also incredible parallels with resistance movements in both places,” he said.
Mr. Boyd-Barrett added that his party had been advocating for expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, and for the imposition of comprehensive sanctions on Israel. Ms. Ní Mhórdha echoed his words in stating that those in the solidarity movement — particularly within the nationwide Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) — have been disappointed with the centre-right Irish government. “When you compare the Irish government to global leaders, it seems like they are very radical. We wanted the Israeli Ambassador to be expelled, but that did not happen. Ambassador Dana Erlich was recalled, and then they decided themselves that she wouldn’t return to Ireland. It was the policy of the Irish Government, under Micheál Martin when he wasthe Minister for Foreign Affairs in the last Government, to always maintain lines of communication with Israel. In fact, Erlich was given adequate airtime in the Irish press,” Dr.. Ní Mhórdha explained.
One view is that, in closing the embassy, the Israeli government is trying to isolate the Irish government and mobilise opinion among other European countries and in the U.S. to restrain from being too critical of Israel. Additionally, Mr. Boyd-Barrett feels that perhaps the Irish government wanted to save face by joining hands with South Africa, given that Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh has been widely hailed in her homeland for being on the team advising South Africa on ICJ case.
In 1984, two shop workers in Dublin had refused to sell grapefruits that originated from South Africa, owing to its apartheid regime. It paved the way for Ireland’s boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, making Ireland the first country to impose sanctions against South Africa. The BDS campaign has since been extended against Israel, through various global efforts.
But Mr. Boyd-Barrett notes the Irish government’s “double standard”, given the prompt sanctions against Russia when it invaded Ukraine. “I met Ursula von der Leyen when she visited the Irish parliament in early 2023, even before the events following October 7. If Europe and the U.S. can rightly say that the Ukrainian people have the right to armed resistance against an illegal invasion of their country, how can they simultaneously accuse Palestinians of being terrorists for engaging in resistance? I am sad that the Irish government is guilty of the same hypocrisy of many of the other European countries,” he said, adding that the only difference is the Irish public opinion.
Dr. Ní Mhórdha was visiting Lund in Sweden before the European Union election that took place in June 2024. She was walked into a tent that had all the markings of centre-left politics. “But when we started talking about Gaza, the educated young man refused to accept it as genocide! Lund University had invited a speaker from Israel for their graduation, and the police were called to clear out protesting students. In Ireland, there is better freedom and a level of common sense,” she said. In April 2024, Dublin’s Trinity College made history when it was among the first globally to cut ties with Israel, following a well-coordinated encampment of several days by students and university staff.
Dr. Ní Mhórdha has witnessed the impact of the BDS movement in her own town. “We have an active well-organised group that was continuously protesting outside the [insurance giant] AXA office in Navan. When AXA finally divested, it felt like a massive victory to the global BDS movement. Even on New Year’s eve, there was music [in the town square] accompanied by waving of Palestinian flags and the keffiyeh, and it was fascinating to learn that so many people from my local community had actually visited Gaza in the past,” she said, adding that people who were hitherto not political — at least on social media — had begun to express their solidarity with Palestine.
Another example of BDS in action was the suspension of Eoin Hayes of the Social Democrats, who was recently elected as Teachta Dála when it was revealed that he had sold his shares in a U.S. software company that supplies the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The key issue during the election debate in November 2024 was the government dragging its feet to pass the Occupied Territories Bill in the Dáil (the Irish parliament) that would ban and criminalise trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under international law, most notably Israeli settlements in Israeli-occupied territories. “Foreign policy has always been a central issue for Ireland. We have significant economic and political relations with the U.S. The Irish government has been trying to stealthily dismantle Irish neutrality and shift us closer to NATO and the EU militarisation project. These are competing pressures: a public that wants Ireland to maintain and protect its anti-colonial traditions and its identification with oppressed people around the world, versus a political establishment that cozies up to American and European economic and political elites. American multinationals are here because they make enormous profits, and I don’t believe they’re going to leave those profits behind simply because we develop a new foreign policy to refuse to act as lapdogs for American or European military adventures. There’s already a campaign developing in the media, and among some backbench members of the government who do not want the Bill to be passed, for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration and economic consequences,” Mr. Boyd-Barrett explained.
For now, there have been rumours that the building of the erstwhile Israeli embassy will be converted into a museum of Palestine, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Remembering the year he spent in Palestine just before the first intifada in 1987, Mr. Boyd-Barrett said that a museum would rightly highlight the Irish and Palestinian similarities in colonial histories, and be an anti-racism educational tool, towards combatting the recent rise of the far-right in Ireland.
Even though Dr. Ní Mhórdha feels frustrated that the government has refused to call Israel an “apartheid” state, she seeks solace in the act of going to protests. “I bumped into a classmate from school during one of the rallies, and I wouldn’t have ever suspected her to be political. What we are doing is simply bearing witness with our solidarity marches, and it is invigorating to bump into friends and colleagues there, to feel a sense of connection and empowerment.”
Mr. Boyd-Barrett, meanwhile, sees hope in the face of the unprecedented global solidarity with the Palestinians, which, he said, is educating a whole generation of young people across the world. “There is a particular responsibility on formerly colonised countries like Ireland and India, to always side with the oppressed, to reject their divide and rule tactics, to remember their own colonial history, and to be part of that global resistance against imperialism, war and colonisation,” he said.
(Priyanka Borpujari is a freelance journalist based in Dublin)
Published – January 21, 2025 05:00 am IST
