IRELAND’S recognition of Palestinian statehood has a moral authority that stands in noble contrast to the humanitarian abyss that Israel has opened up in Gaza.
As a counterpoint to the positive announcement made by Taoiseach Simon Harris, Gaza’s health ministry reported that Israel’s continuing bombardment had killed 62 people and injured 138 others in the last 24-hour period.
These latest fatalities and casualties mean that at least 35,709 people have been killed and 79,990 wounded by Israeli forces since the depraved Hamas October 7 attacks, which left 1,139 dead and dozens still held hostage.
The continuing death and destruction being inflicted on Gaza by a vengeful Benjamin Netanyahu and his government has to stop. Attempting to grind every square inch of Gaza into the dust and driving its children from the safety of their homes and into the death-grip of famine, fear and disease owes more to medieval warfare than modern statecraft.
Achieving peace in the Middle East has eluded governments in the region as well as the international community for decades. Israel and its people have an entirely legitimate claim to nationhood, but so too does Palestine. This has found expression in the two-state solution.
Clearly, there is more to making this a peaceful reality than one sovereign nation simply saying it recognises the sovereignty of another, Palestine. But it is nonetheless an important step.
Simon Harris was correct to put children at the heart of the matter; they are the innocent victims of a tragedy forged by the warmongers of Hamas and Netanyahu’s shoddy regime, but also the generation that will be tasked with building a safer, peaceful future
Indeed, if there’s any criticism to be levelled at yesterday’s historic decision, it is around why it has taken so long for Ireland – consistently one of Palestine’s staunchest allies – to formally support its sovereignty.
Mr Harris perhaps had that in mind when he said it was “never the wrong time to do the right thing”.
“I want to know in years to come, that Ireland spoke up, spoke out in favour of peace, in favour of a political settlement that allows children in Palestine, children in Israel, to live safely and in peace and security side-by-side,” he said.
He was correct to put children at the heart of the matter; they are the innocent victims of an immoral tragedy forged by the warmongers of Hamas and Netanyahu’s shoddy regime, but also the generation that will be tasked with building a safer, peaceful future in the region.
Ireland’s recognition of Palestine, which will be formalised on May 28, was made in lockstep with the governments in Spain and Norway, the mediator in the landmark Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the 1990s.
If Israel’s merciless onslaught has proved anything, it is that war in Gaza cannot bring peace. Only talking, building trust and laying down weapons can do that, in a process that involves two states negotiating as equals.
