Solidarity with the Middle East, for better or worse

More than any other recent international conflict, that between Israel and Hamas has become a prism through which various national dramas are reflected. In France and Germany especially, politicians find themselves confronting a fresh wave of anti-semitism, while also needing to ensure that political expression is not unfairly repressed.  

Ireland’s post-colonial status, as well as its recent relationship with terrorism, means that local responses to the Israel-Palestine conflict differ significantly from responses in other EU countries. When Ursula Von Der Leyen expressed what appeared to be unreserved solidarity with Israel in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed more than 1400 people, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins was quick to call the European Commission President’s actions “thoughtless and even reckless”, while Prime Minister Leo Varadkar felt that Von Der Leyen’s comments “lacked balance”. In Dublin, EU offices were briefly occupied by protestors claiming that the European Commission had given “full support” to Israel’s attacks which have already taken the lives of thousands of Palestinian civilians. According to Politico Europe, such sentiments are in fact shared by many EU foreign ministers and other officials, concerned with Israel’s potential infringement of international law.

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As Finn McRedmond points out in The New Statesman, in Northern Ireland “the lines are starkly drawn: wandering through a unionist area you will see Israeli flags alongside Union Jacks; in nationalist areas the tricolour hangs comfortably beside the Palestinian flag”. Irish Republicans have long seen parallels between the British colonial exploitation of Ireland and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.Polls in the Republic of Ireland suggest that Sinn Féin, the political wing of the now disbanded Irish Republican Army, will win a comfortable majority in the country’s next general election. As they prepare to assume power, Sinn Féin’s leaders have generally been careful to clean up the party’s image, formerly associated with terrorist atrocities. This includes toning down their more militant language regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, one can still find the occasional SF councillor shouting militant Republican slogans at Palestine solidarity protests. For McRedmond, this tension could have serious implications for Ireland’s long-standing neutrality, which the author characterises as “wanting to be a member of the club with special permission to deviate”, and “expecting protection but offering little in return”. 

All the above may seem rather trifling when compared to the human catastrophe currently unfolding in the Middle-East. In fact, there are many in Ireland who are all too directly affected.

As the streets of Europe and beyond fill with expressions of solidarity with either side of the conflict, life in Gaza war zone is not easy for journalists either. In an open Letter, “Laissez-nous entrer dans la bande de Gaza faire notre métier” (Let us enter the Gaza Strip and do our job), published in the French magazine Politis, journalists in France are pleading for the protection of their colleagues in the war zone, and demanding the ability to do their job.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 31 journalists have been killed during the latest outbreak of violence: 26 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese journalist. Eight journalists have been reportedly injured, and nine are missing or detained. Politis, Libération and more than a hundred other French media outlets and journalists have published an open letter imploring both Hamas and the Israeli authorities to provide adequate protection to international journalists and allow them to access the Gaza strip.

The text highlights several cases of journalists who have been killed while covering recent events, such as Ibrahim Lafi, who was killed on October 7 while reporting on an attack by Hamas at the Erez crossing, as well as journalists from international agencies including Agence France Presse, Reuters, and Al-Jazeera who were hit by Israeli artillery fire.

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