Ireland becomes 1st to declare Gaza officially genocide – must now act under Genocide Convention

First Western government formally obliges itself to intervene in Israel’s genocide in Gaza after Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s statement

The Irish government has become the first western government to declare that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, after Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin’s speech to the Dáil in Dublin earlier this week:

The Irish government has been criticised for a mixed response to the genocide, in particular for allowing Israeli military aircraft to use Irish airspace despite strong statements from the government and Ireland’s joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January. However, having officially recognised that Israel is committing genocide, the Irish government has made itself unequivocally subject to the obligations of the Genocide Convention to intervene in every way that it can to prevent or end genocide, whether in peace-time or war.

Martin’s declaration is also a shift for him personally. In October last year, he refused to say Israel was committing genocide, a stance that was criticised in a video published by Irish socialist TD (MP) Paul Murphy:

Martin’s awakening led to predictable condemnation from the Israel lobby in Ireland and internationally, leading Ireland’s deputy PM Simon Harris to defend the government’s position, telling an opposition TD that:

We are the first government in the European Union (EU) to say what Israel is doing is genocide. It is genocide.

Ireland recognised Palestinian statehood last year and Harris added that legislation banning trade with goods from Israeli settlements would start its progress through the Irish parliament in June.

Please remember to support Skwawkbox if you can, to help ensure it can keep running. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (Skwawkbox will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:

Thanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so, but please include the donor information above – see here for more.