We Irish have many wonderful virtues, but perhaps our greatest asset is our ability to be two-faced. Indeed, to show our national commitment to two-facedness, we elect politicians who excel in that department.
Step forward Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who are joint winners of this year’s Two-Faced Politician of the Year Award. For the first time, the Dublin government has beaten Stormont into second place, mainly because the north’s two leaders have concentrated instead on having their two faces photographed. (They will now be entered in a different type of two-faced competition.)
So what, you ask, have the taoiseach and tánaiste done to deserve such castigation? The answer is that both men have offered a wide range of adjectives to describe Israel’s slaughter of over 40,000 civilians in Gaza, including 16,500 children. These have included Mr Martin’s “barbaric”, “shocking” and “outrageous” and Mr Harris’s “absolutely unimaginable and unconscionable”.
However, the Dublin government allows US military aircraft, and civilian aeroplanes used by the military, to re-fuel at Shannon. These aircraft carry military equipment and personnel flying between the US and war zones in Europe and Asia.
The two politicians condemn Israel’s violence, while facilitating the supply of military equipment to Israel. Two-faced is perhaps the kindest description of that behaviour.
Last week, for example, the peace and human rights group, Shannonwatch, reported that two US military transport aircraft landed at Shannon. We do not know exactly what was in them because, according to the Dublin government, “Foreign military aircraft which are given permission to land in Ireland are not subject to inspection”. Since 2002 an estimated three million US troops have gone through Shannon.
Mr Harris said this week that he asked himself “every single day” what more the Irish government could do to bring about peace in Gaza. He could begin by banning US military equipment and personnel from passing through Ireland.
The International Criminal Court has stated it reasonably believes that Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, bears criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This includes the starvation of civilians, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population and wilful killing. The court made similar charges against three Hamas leaders.
So if Netanyahu is considered a war criminal, where does that leave Joe Biden, the man who supplies Israel’s weapons of war? That’s the same Joe Biden who was fawned over by Irish politicians (except the SDLP) on St Patrick’s Day, including our First and Deputy First Ministers.
The second largest supplier of arms to Israel is the EU, so beloved of the Irish, particularly northern nationalists. According to the European External Action Service’s COARM, between 2018 and 2022, EU member states sold arms worth £1.5 billion to Israel. Those figures do not include the sales of arms to the US which are then re-deployed to Israel.
It has not suggested that refugees should be allowed to leave Gaza and that Ireland would take 100,000 of them. Russian invasions are bad. Israeli invasions, backed by the US and the EU, are not so bad
So should the EU be in the dock along with Israel and the US? A total of £363 million of EU taxpayers’ money (including from Ireland) has gone to fund companies which supply arms to Israel and in the last decade Ireland has bought over £7 million worth of arms from Israel. Should Ireland too be in the dock?
And when it comes to war crimes, how can we forget Britain? The UK has issued more than 100 arms export licences to Israel from last October to May. Amnesty International has found evidence that Britain’s M109 self-propelled howitzers have been used to shell densely populated areas of Gaza.
The organisation Declassified UK claims that pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament. The total donations amount to £300,000. On Tuesday Keir Starmer phoned Netanyahu to say that Britain was “steadfast” in its support for Israel’s right to self-defence. He did not make the same pledge to Palestine.
Following the Russian invasion, Ireland accepted 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. It has not suggested that refugees should be allowed to leave Gaza and that Ireland would take 100,000 of them. Russian invasions are bad. Israeli invasions, backed by the US and the EU, are not so bad.
We know from history that the US, the EU and Britain will always side with the world’s rich and powerful. Ireland should be different. We suffered centuries of repression, but now we assist in repression in a different part of the world.
Worse than that, we express distress at human suffering while facilitating it. Romantic Ireland is indeed dead and gone. It lies amid the ashes in Gaza.
