Ireland’s recent decision to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice is the latest demonstration of a rift between the United States and the Emerald Isle over the war in Gaza.
South Africa filed a case in the United Nations’s highest court in late December alleging Israel was carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people, a claim the Israelis and the U.S., among other allies of the Jewish state, have strongly denied.
Micheal Martin, the Republic of Ireland’s foreign minister and deputy leader, announced on Wednesday the nation’s intent to intervene in the case. In the announcement, he alleged that both Hamas, in its Oct. 7 terrorist attack that prompted the war, and Israel’s response “represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale.”
“The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population,” he added. “The list goes on. It has to stop.”
A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner the U.S.-Ireland relationship remains “steadfast.”
Ireland has long been one of the most pro-Palestinian European countries due to their shared history of resistance, for the Irish from the British rule and for those in Gaza from Israel, former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said last month at the White House.
The ICJ ordered Israel on Thursday to stop obstructing humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza, saying they had to “take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services.”
The court’s order came more than a month after it issued its interim ruling on Jan. 26, demanding Israel to “take all measures” to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Following the ruling, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused South Africa of “cynical attempts to exploit” the court to “undermine Israel’s inherent right and obligation to defend its citizens from the ongoing Hamas attacks and to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza in brutal captivity.”
The ministry blamed the war on Hamas for carrying out the Oct. 7 attack.
It could take months or years for the court to come to a conclusion on the core question on the case about whether Israel committing a genocide against the Palestinians.
President Joe Biden, who regularly boasts of his Irish heritage, welcomed Varadkar to the White House for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a couple of weeks ago, but Varadkar, who announced his resignation days later, faced pressure to boycott the event due to Biden’s continued support for Israel.
“Mr President, as you know, the Irish people are deeply troubled about the catastrophe that’s unfolding before our eyes in Gaza. When I travel the world, leaders often ask me why the Irish have so much empathy for the Palestinian people,” he said. “The answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes. A story of displacement and dispossession, a national identity questioned and denied, forced emigration, discrimination, and now — hunger.”
Both leaders expressed their desire to get more aid into Gaza and for a ceasefire agreement, though they don’t entirely agree on the deals of a cessation of hostilities.
Varadkar was not the only politician at the St. Patrick’s Day White House event under domestic pressure related to the war. Biden has supported Israel’s right to self-defense and to go after Hamas following the attack, but the increasing death toll and destruction in Gaza has enraged pro-Palestinians in the U.S., many of whom are progressive members of the president’s party.
Last year, Biden traveled to Ireland, where he visited his great-great-great grandfather’s hometown of Ballina in County Mayo last April. He was widely welcomed by Irish lawmakers and civilians, though the reaction to his visit would be different now than it was then, according to Aodhan O Riordain, a center-left Irish lawmaker.
“It’s amazing how much things can change in a year,” he told CBS News. “That visit would be impossible today. If that happened today, there would be nobody in the chamber.”
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Ireland, Spain, Malta, and Slovenia announced their intent this month to take steps toward recognizing Palestinian statehood in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israel responded to their plan days ago by saying statehood for Palestinians would constitute a “prize for terrorism.”
The Biden administration also supports the creation of a Palestinian state. It’s unclear who would lead a new government because the strip has been governed for more than a decade by Hamas.