Ireland Officially Joins South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel

Ireland has officially joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the latest move by Dublin against the Jewish state amid a downward spiral in relations between the two countries.

In a brief statement released on Tuesday, the top UN court said that Ireland the prior day joined Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Bolivia, Turkey, the Maldives, Chile, Spain, and “Palestine” in asking to intervene in the case.

Since December 2023, South Africa has been pursuing its case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Nearly a year later, in November, the Irish parliament passed a non-binding motion saying that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.” As the measure passed, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said that the government intended to join South Africa’s case before the end of the year.

Weeks later, Martin said that he had received the government’s approval to intervene in the case against Israel.

“By legally intervening in South Africa’s case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state,” Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement at the time last month. “We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized.”

The statement claimed that there has been “a collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel,” adding, “Ireland’s view of the [Genocide Convention] is broader and prioritizes the protection of civilian life.”

Ireland’s declaration of intervention puts forward no further allegations against Israel not already alleged by South Africa.

In January, the ICJ ruled there was “plausibility” to South Africa’s claims that Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide. However, the top UN court did not make a determination on the merits of South Africa’s allegations — which Israel and its allies have described as baseless and may take years to get through the judicial process. Israeli officials have strongly condemned the ICJ proceedings, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

Pro-Israel advocates welcomed the ICJ ruling because it did not impose a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza and called for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas last Oct. 7. Rather than declare that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and order the Jewish state to stop its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave, the court issued a more general directive that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide.

In late October, South Africa filed the bulk of the relevant material to support its allegations.

Ireland’s latest move, proceeded by a wave of fierce criticism from the Irish government directed at Israel, led the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the move and explained the key reason was Ireland’s decision to join South Africa’s case at the ICJ and its support for redefining genocide in order to secure a conviction against Jerusalem.

Israel accused the Irish government of undermining Israel at international forums and promoting “extreme anti-Israel policies.”

Ireland has “crossed all the red lines,” Sa’ar told reporters at the time, calling the Irish government’s actions “unilateral hostility and persecution” rather than mere criticism.

The announcement came after Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing the country of “the starvation of children” and “the killing of civilians” — remarks that Sa’ar slammed as “antisemitic” and historically insensitive. Sa’ar also noted how “when Jewish children died of starvation in the Holocaust, Ireland was at best neutral in the war against Nazi Germany.”

Ireland has been among Europe’s fiercest critics of Israel since Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In May, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, prompting outrage in Israel, which described the move as a “reward for terrorism.” Israel’s Ambassador in Dublin Dana Erlich said at the time of Ireland’s recognition of “Palestine” that Ireland was “not an honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More recently, Harris in October called on the European Union to “review its trade relations” with Israel after the Israeli parliament passed legislation banning the activities in the country of UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, because of its ties to Hamas.

Recent anti-Israel actions in Ireland came shortly after the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), an Israeli education watchdog group, released a new report revealing Irish school textbooks have been filled with negative stereotypes and distortions of Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.

Antisemitism in Ireland has become “blatant and obvious” in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, according to Alan Shatter, a former member of parliament who served in the Irish cabinet between 2011 and 2014 as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defense. Shatter told The Algemeiner in an interview earlier this year that Ireland has “evolved into the most hostile state towards Israel in the entire EU.”

Three months ago, an Irish official, Dublin City Councilor Punam Rane, claimed during a council meeting that Jews and Israel control the US economy, arguing that is why Washington, DC does not oppose Israel’s war against Hamas.

Meanwhile, the Catholic religious establishment in Ireland has also come under scrutiny for targeting Israel. In a New Year’s message last week by Archbishop Eamon Martin, the most senior Catholic figure in Ireland lambasted Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “merciless” and a “disproportionate” response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.

Martin was not the first prominent Irish cleric to use his platform to castigate Israel in recent days.

In November, Reverend Canon David Oxley came under fire for delivering an antisemitic memorial sermon in which he suggested that Israelis and Jews see themselves as a “master race” that justifies “eliminating” other groups “because they don’t count.”

Oxley delivered the sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin during a Remembrance Sunday service attended by Irish President Michael Higgins and other high-ranking dignitaries.

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