Another day, another rapping of Sinn Féin knuckles in the Irish Times, this one coming from former Irish ambassador Bobby McDonagh. As McDonagh sees it, Sinn Féin got it right until they got it wrong:
“Having argued sensibly, including at party leader level, that it would be wrong to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Sinn Féin abruptly embraced calls for her expulsion. The party’s ardfheis became a simplistically pro-Palestinian event.”
That the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis was a pro-Palestinian event is certainly true. The Palestinian ambassador, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid was there and received a standing ovation. Many of those in attendance, including Gerry Adams, wore the keffiyeh, a distinctive black-and-white Palestinian scarf. Was that simplistic? Irish President Michael D Higgins has said “To announce in advance that you will break international law and to do so on an innocent population, it reduces all the code that was there from second world war on protection of civilians and it reduces it to tatters.” Was that simplistic? Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, said she was concerned about the spreading of misinformation…Israel is abiding by international law.” Was that a lie?
Most of us don’t have to think twice: of course Israel is in breach of international law. That law forbids the targeting of civilians in a conflict, the forced evacuation of Palestinian homes.
Bobby McDonagh reminds us that Ireland is a neutral state. There could be some dispute about that, but neutrality doesn’t mean you can never speak out about cruelty and barbarism. Israel has so far killed 22,000 civilians and has displaced over a million Palestinians. It has bombed hospitals and refugee camps.
It may be diplomatic to turn a blind eye to these events, but it’s not moral. If being neutral on the world stage means you cannot speak out when over 7,000 children are killed, then the sooner Ireland quits the UN the better.
SF has always supported Palestine, the IRA and PLO were literally brothers in arms so nobody could be surprised by their decision.
I understand that Eamon de Valera spoke out against the Treaty of Versailles on its signing saying it
seemed a recipe for another Cold War.
Later at the League of Nations Dev wanted effective sanctions to punish Britain’s ally, Japan for
the seizure of Manchuria.
He, alone of League delegates, wanted effective, including military, sanctions applied to Italy,
which, under Britain’s protege, Knight of the Bath Benito Mussolini, for the Rape of Abyssinia.
He was willing to send Irish Defence Force units to a League force.
De Valera condemned Hitler’s Nuremburg Decrees which stripped Jew in Germany of their civil
rights.
The tiny Jewish community in Ireland, in the main supported the Republic during our War of Independence, and have contributed more than their proportionate share to Ireland since.
DeValera never supported Zionism, realising the injustices it would impose on the indigenous
population of Palestine.
Those who follow the rational and ethical example of De Valera face the same unprincipled
abuse which he suffered.
Dev opposed another historic treaty, until it suited him
Correction: “Another Cold War” should read “Another WORLD WAR”
Treaties are made between sovereign states which recognise each other.
The democratically established Irish Republic and its Parliament Dail Eireann were not recognised by Britain.
A vote in Dail Eireann, could not ratify anything according to the Britain’s understanding of law.
Though, by a small majority Dail Eireann not to resume armed resistance to British dictatorship
all members of the Dail voiced their dislike of it.
When some members of the Dail met together on the order of King George’s Lord Lieutenant
and swore an Oath of Allegiance to that King they became an IRREGULAR JUNTA.
De Valera was not an IRREGULAR. A few months earlier Dail Eireann had proclaimed Dev as
Head of State, whereas since April 1919 he had been merely Head of the Government.
Since the 1860s the Presidency of the “virtually established Republic” was vested in the IRB.
The IRB ceded that claim to the democratically established and re-confirmed Republic, without
any prompting from Dev.
Dev was a doctrinaire democrat. He never proclamed himself “The Liberator” nor did he have
the Lanlord arrogance to call himself “the Master” of any party.
He acted as a Guide.
The Indian Republic and later Republics with external relationship within the Commonwealth
adopted the formula of De Valera’s “Document Number Two” rejected by less subtle minds in 1922.