Ireland has taken a position of empathy and solidarity towards the suffering of Palestinian people. But the Government needs to continue to back up words with action. This is why passing the Occupied Territories Bill, which the foreign and trade committee recommends should include trade in services, is so important.
Right now around the world, the same people, politicians and media outlets who obfuscated, approved – and effectively gave licence to Israel to carry out unfettered war crimes by constantly stating that it “has a right to defend itself”, as though that’s what it was doing – are currently embarking upon a collective reversal.
The spines achingly visible under the thin skin of starving children have finally prompted a vague expression of another kind of backbone.
[ Israel increasingly isolated as more countries sign up to recognise PalestineOpens in new window ]
In so many ways, it’s too late. In others, whatever on earth can be done to stop the horror being perpetrated on Gaza and the West Bank, whatever action to end Israel’s daily massacres and strategic starvation of Palestinians, has to happen. It had to happen yesterday, and since it didn’t, it has to happen today. This heel-dragging is incredibly frustrating. But what it also demonstrates is that everyone who called out war crimes and genocide for what they are from the get-go was right.
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A recent, very good letter to The Irish Times advocated for the Government to call a national day of protest. Tánaiste Simon Harris posted this letter to Instagram, and wrote: “The people of Ireland stand with the people of Palestine. We stand for human rights, for international law, for a two-state solution, for aid to flow, for hostages to be released. We stand for peace. We stand for an end to genocide. The suggestion for a national day or moment of solidarity made by Michael Cush in the letter above is sensible and a good idea. It could be powerful if many countries did it together. I will now talk to colleagues on how to make this happen.”
[ Occupied Territories Bill: Irish voters grow more cautious, poll showsOpens in new window ]
There have been many national days of protest and solidarity over the past two years, with hundreds of thousands of people participating – marching, protesting, rallying, fundraising, cycling, hiking, running, swimming, cooking, holding concerts, markets and matches, producing T-shirts and art – and doing everything they could to raise awareness and funds, all of which makes up an undeniable network of unbreakable grassroots solidarity.
This is already meaningful. While I am all for more protest – and the public does not need Government to give it a seal of approval, although it would be powerful to see all politicians in the Dáil and Seanad hold their own protest or march with those already on the streets – the public cannot draft legislation. The Government needs to do what is within its power.
That means passing the Occupied Territories Bill, including trade in services. It also means ending the transport of weapons of war and their components in Irish airspace – a question which Harris flubbed during an interview on The Late Late Show – and ending the export of components of machinery such as drones from companies in Ireland to Israel. The people are doing their work on the ground and in communities. The Government needs to do its work in Leinster House.
The 41st anniversary of the beginning of the Dunnes Stores strike protesting against apartheid South Africa passed recently. The people who participated in that strike – and Mary Manning was just 21 years old when she took the stand that catalysed it – did so at personal and financial cost. But the real cost of a stand such as this is never money, inconvenience, disapproval, the loss of acceptability or access to cliques of power. It’s about what happens when you don’t take it. And that’s about our soul and integrity. It’s about our morality and our ethical steadfastness. It’s no surprise then, to see Manning at Palestine solidarity protests 41 years later.
In Omar El Akkad’s book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, he writes, “The moral component of history, the most necessary component, is simply a single question, asked over and over again: When it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power? What makes moments such as this one so dangerous, so clarifying, is that one way or another everyone is forced to answer.”
We cannot wait to reflect with hindsight. We need to answer that question now. Time and time again, when Ireland has led, others have followed. Recognising Palestinian statehood, for example, was not merely symbolic, it was also a catalyst, one which other countries are following. The Occupied Territories Bill, including trade in services, can act as another catalyst, where Ireland can lead on a global movement of the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel.
The reflection that will then occur in time can be one where Ireland can be seen as a beacon in dark times, a small nation that did everything it could to illuminate a path out of this horrific mire. The people of Ireland protesting have secured their legacy in this moment. Now it’s time for our legislators to live up to such aspirations.
