Ireland will intervene in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Gaza genocide case before the end of the year, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has confirmed.
He told the Dáil that “the Government intends to file a Declaration of Intervention in the case initiated by South Africa against Israel under the genocide convention at the International Court of Justice”.
Mr Martin was speaking during a Social Democrats private member’s motion on genocide in Gaza, in which party leader Holly Cairns accused the Government of being complicit in genocide.
Ms Cairns said “we cannot, as a State, claim to be militarily neutral when we are facilitating the passage of weapons through Ireland. By failing to act to prevent this, the Government makes Ireland complicit in the slaughter of the Palestinian people, complicit in a genocide this Government refuses to name.”
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The Tánaiste said, however, it was “reprehensible” to make such an accusation and suggested that was “exploiting” the situation, which Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon described as “disgraceful”.
Mr Martin said it had always been the Government’s intention “to file this declaration after South Africa has filed its memorial in the case. We understand that South Africa filed its memorial last week”.
The Government’s decision “to intervene in the South African case was based on detailed and rigorous legal analysis. We’re serious about this and we’ve done it properly.”
He said “work is progressing on the preparation of Ireland’s declaration of intervention, which it is intended will be filed before the end of this year. In formulating this declaration, Ireland will set out a robust basis for its intervention before the court. It is then a matter for the court to rule on its admissibility.”
Mr Gannon asked “what will be left of Gaza?” while the Government goes to court. He said the Government seems to be “content to be the least worst” of nations in its response, and insisted that “we are complicit” in genocide.
Ms Cairns said that there are “after nearly 44,000 dead, including nearly 17,000 children, after more than 100,000 people injured, after 10,000 people missing, buried in wreckage and the rubble. After an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon, nothing has changed”.
“We still maintain normal diplomatic relations with Israel. We still maintain normal travel relations with Israel. We’ve actually increased our trade in dual use technology with Israel. We continue to allow military aircrafts carrying bombs and munitions to travel through our airports and airspace, and this Government still won’t call Israel’s actions what they are. This is a genocide.”
The Tánaiste said the Government “has also repeatedly set out the clear policies and procedures that pertain to overflights of sovereign airspace. There are procedures and a legal framework there. We don’t facilitate anything there.”
He said that “on the question of sanctions, as this House is aware Ireland does not impose unilateral domestic sanctions. We’ve been particularly active against violent illegal Israeli settlements.”
Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Matt Carthy said the Tánaiste and other Government representative “are all always going to great pains to outline the appreciation that is expressed to them by representatives of the Palestinian people. I have to say that speaks more to the silence and complicity of much of the rest of the Western world than it does give reason for us to clap ourselves on the back.”
His party colleague Rose Conway-Walsh pointed to the Occupied Territories Bill and said the Government had had four years to sort out issues with it. “I do not trust this Government to pass this Bill in the next term.”
Labour TD Brendan Howlin said that for more than a year “the people of Gaza have been bombed, shelled, buried under rubble, burned and starved. A staggering 43,000 Palestinians are dead. Many believe that is a considerable underestimate. Many, up to 10,000, more are still buried under the vast tracts of rubble that was once the built environment of Palestine.”
Independent TD Catherine Connolly described the Tánaiste’s speech as “carefully crafted, avoiding the issue and utterly out of touch with the feeling of the public on the ground”.
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