“40,000 dead in Gaza is a milestone the world must be ashamed of. International diplomacy has failed to protect innocent children.” In such strong words, passionately spoke out the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, about the latest grim record set by the war on Gaza last week.
What is happening in Gaza is undoubtedly a crime of horrific proportions. And yet, it seems it is not only the failings of “international diplomacy” that are to be blamed for the massacre of innocent Palestinian children… It turns out that the Irish State is doing their fair share in actively helping out the perpetuators of the slaughter.
A recent article released by the ditch shined a spotlight on how the state is facilitating Israeli flights collecting US military cargo through Irish-controlled airspace.
According to the ditch investigations, an Israeli plane has been making daily trips to and from US military bases for more than a week now. The same plane is regularly receiving support from the Irish traffic management services and clearance to utilize airspace under the country’s control. These regular trips have started suspiciously soon after the US has authorised an additional 3.5 billions dollars in military aid to Israel – that is, military ‘aid’ that Israel will use to slaughter thousands more of Palestinians.
One can’t help but wonder, how many of these 40,000 innocent women, men and children is the Taoiseach and his government complicit in killing by allowing such collaboration between Israel and the Irish state?
It is well known that words are very cheap. But especially when it comes to opposing imperialist slaughters, what really matters is deeds. And the deeds of the Irish state, of this government, and of Simon Harris speak a very different language than the radical tone used by the Taoiseach. Their deeds speak a language of complicity and subservience to imperialism and their schemes.
Ruling Class’ Hypocrisy
This is not the first time that – despite the most hypocritical statements – the Irish government has been in full support of the imperialists’ policies in Palestine, as we have pointed out from the very beginning.
Just in May, the ditch again reported that a US military cargo plane regularly used for munition transports was permitted to land at Shannon Airport. In fact, the US military is regularly allowed to use the airport on its way to the conflict region. Shannonwatch records several such instances over the last year, including of American warplanes used to patrol the Middle East. And who knows how many more military planes that go unnoticed pass through Irish space, receive support from the State, or altogether land at Shannon Airport?
And yet the government has categorically rejected to implement even just searches and inspections to ‘uphold’ its own laws – that is, to make sure there are no munitions or weapons (which under Irish law cannot transit through Ireland) in these planes. On the contrary it has granted more than 1000 exemptions in 2023 alone (almost three every day!) and there is no record of any inspections actually having been carried out throughout the year!
With in excess of 15 billion dollars of military aid given to Israel by the US, and the Pentagon complaining how difficult it is to find enough cargo planes to deliver all the weapons to Israel, we will be excused to suspect the reason why these searches are not being carried out is because the Irish state is facilitating the transport of weapons and ammunitions to Israel.
Indeed, despite their sham neutrality, the Irish ruling class has always been but a lapdog of Western imperialism. Simon Harris and Micheàl Martin are no exception to this.
Their rhetoric is not meant to be taken seriously. It’s only a smokescreen to hide their subservience to the imperialists from a population with a deep-rooted hatred for imperialism.
When, after years of postponing, they recognise the State of Palestine right at a time when half of it is getting reduced to rubble, while the other half is slowing disappearing at the hands of Israeli settlers, it is meant precisely as an empty gesture to show they ‘are doing something’.
When they ‘intervene’ in the ICJ case against Israel, it is precisely to mask their support for US imperialism and, therefore, for what Israel is doing in the region.
And finally, when they denounce the slaughter of innocent children and make empty calls for a ceasefire, they are only hiding their tracks from their complicity in the murder.
Fight Imperialism! Down with its lackeys!
We must be clear. We cannot place our hopes on the Irish ruling class to oppose imperialism or to put an end to the war on Gaza.
Putting “pressure” on the government will, at best, achieve nothing. In the worst case, the verbal concessions made by the government will actually only provide them with a useful cover to continue their support for imperialism under a thin guise of ‘radicalism’. This is because the government, the state, and Irish capitalism are in the pockets of precisely the same imperialists which have run rampage over the Middle East for decades now.
But on the other side of the ruling class sham neutrality, and their not-too-hidden material support of the imperialists’ machinations, is the seething hatred for the imperialists that runs in the vein of hundreds of thousands of Irish workers and youth – whose revolutionary traditions speak of centuries of heroic struggles against colonialism and imperialism.
Only militant, mass action can force the hands of the imperialists. In order to stop the war, the labour movement must rediscover its old militant traditions, going back to the inspiring Dunnes Stores strikes against apartheid. Already the dockers in Barcelona have shown the way by refusing to handle war material passing through their docks. A movement like the Palestine solidarity encampments, organised under a revolutionary programme, and linked with the working class has the power to inflict a significant dent to the imperialists’ war efforts.
No military aid should be allowed to go through Ireland. There must be no support for the imperialists war efforts. We need to fight to cut all the ties that link Ireland to the Israeli and American war machines!
Ultimately, fighting against imperialism in Ireland means overthrowing its faithful lackeys, their capitalist state, and the system they defend. We need to fight for a 32 counties workers’ state!
