Ireland joins South Africa to bolster case against Israel in support of human rights

Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheàl Martin, has announced that Ireland will formally be joining the government of South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. It’s only the fourth time since 1948 one country has joined and supported another country’s case at the International Court of Justice.

Some questioned Ireland’s delay in formally joining a case it has always supported, but the legalities of working with South Africa on the international stage is a complex and rare legal issue.

“Our analysis and consultations have now concluded. Ireland will be intervening” declared Martin. “What we saw on 7 October in Israel and what we are seeing in Gaza now represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law. We condemn the collective punishment of an entire population.”

Ireland’s decision comes as the mass killing of civilians and the wholesale destruction of dense urban environments continues. There’s also the spectre of famine which torments Gazans as well.

For a person of Irish heritage this raises ghosts of the not so distant past. Before the outbreak of famine in Ireland in 1845 the population was eight and a half million. Little more than a generation later it was four million. A million died and a million fled the country during the famine years and millions followed in the succeeding decades. It took Ireland well over a century to recover. How long will it take the Palestinians to recover from mass displacement, mass murder and loss of territory. It is already 75 years since they were first evicted from their homeland.

The Irish writer, Brendan Behan, once quipped: “A terrorist is a man with a small gun, a statesman is a man with a large gun.” Between Israel and Palestine, we know who holds the bigger gun. Israel, and other nations like the U.S., are imposing a reign of terror on Gaza. How long before the Palestinians get their large gun? The sooner the better.

Gerry McAlister (MA in Modern Irish History) lives in Fredericton.