Open Letter to Laois-Offaly Elected Representatives re. Israeli Genocide in Palestine

Dear Elected Representatives,

On the 24th January, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael shamefully blocked a motion by the Social Democrats for Ireland to support South Africa’s case against Israeli genocide in the International Court of Justice. As well as a belligerent defiance of the will of the Irish people, this is also a contravention of international law as per the Genocide Convention.

In less than four months, 30,000 Palestinian people have been massacred, 10,000 of whom are children. Almost two million people have been displaced. Food, water, electricity and medicine have been cut off and all hospitals have been destroyed, meaning masses of Palestinian people will now die of preventable starvation, dehydration and disease. (As experienced by the Irish people in the Great Hunger.)

Following the motion’s narrow defeat, the vast majority of Irish people are dismayed at Táiniste Micheál Martin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s latest move in a long list of efforts to block support for Palestine. 

Since Oct 7th, they have avoided and delayed using the word ‘ceasefire’. They still refuse to use the word ‘genocide’. Fianna Fáil hosted the Israeli ambassador at their Ard Fheis. Micheál Martin visited the site of Oct 7th attacks in Israel but did not visit Gaza. 

On the 23rd January, Micheál Martin used his time in the Dáil debate to falsely accuse People Before Profit of not condemning Hamas and to extend his support for Israel, positioning Israel as the oppressed and not the oppressor in these barely believable utterances from a member of a party borne out of colonial struggle;

“Denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination is not acceptable either.”

– Micheál Martin

There are many tangible actions at the government’s disposal to exert pressure on the EU, UN, US and Israel for a permanent ceasefire. In Social Democrats’ leader Holly Cairns’ address to the government she said;

“The government talks about holding the Israeli government to account but has failed at every single opportunity to do so. You won’t support South Africa at the ICJ, you won’t lobby for economic sanctions at an EU level, you won’t refer a case to the ICC, you won’t withdraw the diplomatic status of the Israeli ambassador, and you won’t pass the Occupied Territories Bill or the illegal Israeli Settlement Divestment Bill.”

It appears however that the current Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leadership is at odds with the position on Palestine and promises made by our Laois-Offaly TDs through the years.

In 2016, then Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan (FG) said “I am actively keeping under consideration, on a continuous basis, the question of whether recognition by Ireland in the near future of a state of Palestine might be a helpful step in relation to the Middle East peace process.” 

In 2021, Deputy Barry Cowan (FF) asked then Minister for Foreign affairs in a Dáil debate if “there’d been any step change in the Israeli approach?” And whether “he agreed that the recent designation by the Israeli defence ministry of six prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organisations is not encouraging?”

At a pro-Palestine march in Portlaoise on 22nd May 2022, Deputy Seán Fleming (FF) said to the Palestinian people present “It’s so sad that you have to be here. But you must keep the pressure up on states like ourselves because when you have a conflict with another country, they will have to listen to outsiders. We have to convince people who support people who are oppressing you to not be as supportive as we have seen in recent days.”

He ended by saying “When there is violence or a threat of violence, we can never have peace. Ultimately, this will be done by negotiations internationally. Anything Ireland can do in that area, we will. We will help your people in every way we can.”

On behalf of the people of Laois-Offaly who support Palestine, I am asking our local TDs to match these words with actions. Your parties are failing us on a national level, our only hope is that our representatives at local level will take a stand. Will you do this for us?

Today, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel is a genocidal state. Can you please ensure that your leaders and every member of your party supports Ireland’s joining of this case and that our state does everything it can to ensure Israel complies with the ICJ requests  - such as cessation of killing, allowing aid into Gaza and a compliance report by Israel to the ICJ within 30 days.

Not only is this Ireland’s moral imperative, it is also a legal one. If Ireland continues to support the US, UK and EU in their funding and complicity to Israeli genocide, we too are complicit, we too are complicit and in violation of international law. 

In Micheál Martin’s motion on Wednesday, which was arguably designed to thwart the Social Democrats motion to join the ICJ case, he stated that Ireland would ‘strongly consider’ intervening when the preliminary findings of the ICJ were announced. 

The findings are unequivocal and clear. The highest court in the land rules that genocide is being committed by Israel and that Palestinian people are entitled to protection by all state parties to the Genocide Convention.  The Irish state must put all of its legal and humanitarian might behind the South African team in the ICJ case. 

Members of Laois and Offaly County Councils, can you please also take action for Palestine? E.g. Dublin City Council flew the Palestinian flag. Cork County Council voted unanimously for a motion brought by Fine Gael Cllr Sinead Sheppard to support the BDS and become an apartheid free zone. Wexford County Council passed a motion by Sinn Féin Councillor Fionntán O’ Súilleabhain in support of referring Israel to the International Criminal Court; the invocation of the Genocide Convention and the BDS Movement. 

Can you please declare, on behalf of Laois - Offaly citizens, our full support of the South African ICJ case?

Ireland takes proudly, the part we played in supporting South Africa’s liberation from apartheid. We take proudly what we achieved in our own fight for independence. We deeply desire to support the Palestinian people in their fight for peace and self-determination. 

We are imploring our Laois - Offaly Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs as well as our Local Councillors to please join the Labour Party, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, Independents and the Irish people on the right side of history as a matter of urgency and a matter of life or death. 

None of us are free until Palestine is free. 

Le Meas,

Laura Murphy