Remains to be seen if Tánaiste's Middle East tour will raise conflict higher up global agenda
Micheál Martin said it was very important to never forget what happened during the Holocaust. Picture: Phil Behan/DFA
Two weeks before the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence arrived in Israel, the United Nations Security Council was given a bleak briefing by the UN’s Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland.
He told them that more than 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis had been killed so far this year. These deaths came during demonstrations, clashes, military operations, attacks and other incidents. It’s the highest number of fatalities since 2005.
“The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addresses the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on both sides,” Mr Wennesland said.
He added that Israeli settlement growth, demolitions, settler violence and Palestinian militant activity all persist which is resulting in Palestinians and Israelis killed and injured in near-daily violence.
This was the backdrop for Micheál Martin’s trip to the Middle East. And it was one he was well aware he was going into. On the last day of his trip in Jordan, he admitted he’s been “quite pessimistic for the last while”.
“All of the people I've met over the last three days have said it’s probably one of the most challenging phases on the issue and it is getting into more difficult terrain, to say the least, in terms of the settler violence and in terms of violence in Israel as well,” he said.
“There’s an urgent need in the first instance to try and develop measures to reduce the tensions. I’m very mindful of the challenges on all fronts. I think a lot of people privately get the reality of what’s going on.”
For many decades, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has ebbed and flowed, constantly escalating and de-escalating; outbreaks of violence, wars, peace talks.
After the Six Day War of 1967, in which Israel seized the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Palestinian populations in many of these areas have been under Israeli rule.
In the West Bank, where the Palestinian National Authority seeks to establish its own State, Israeli people have been making frequent incursions to expand Jewish settlements in the area. The reasons for doing this have been cited as both religious — in some Jewish traditions, it is said to be a religious imperative to settle the entire land of Israel — and for economic and security reasons.
A great many countries, including Ireland, believe Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to be illegal. The issue of settler violence against Palestinian people, and the demolition of homes, has consistently been an issue in recent times. At the same time, Israel has hit out at attacks on its citizens and security personnel.
Conflict has escalated in the last few years, and has continued to do at a rapid pace in 2023.
With more right-wing figures in the coalition Government that came to power under long-time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late 2022, it’s understood that there are voices within that Government who are not committed to a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine.
Put simply, the two-state solution would see two separate countries, with an independent state of Palestine alongside Israel, situated west of the Jordan River. Where the borders would be is one of great contention.
In any case, it’s a solution that Ireland is committed to. And remains so after the Tánaiste’s visit this week. But any kind of breakthrough is probably as far from becoming a reality now as at any point in recent decades.
At European level, Ireland is only one of a small number of countries that wants the Israeli-Palestinian conflict placed far higher up on the international relations agenda. The war in Ukraine and other crises have served to put it down the pecking order in terms of priority for other countries in recent years.
Part of the rationale for this trip was ostensibly a bid to try to bring it back into focus. Ireland has a long-standing reputation for support for Palestine and the two-state solution. So much so, that it has earned the country a fairly negative reputation in Israel.
News articles in the Israeli media frequently criticise the Irish stance, such as an opinion piece in the last year asking simply “Why does Ireland hate Israel?”. In that article, and it’s an example that’s frequently cited, the case of Éamon de Valera sending condolences to German authorities when Adolf Hitler died in 1945 is brought up.
Some of the discourse suggests that Ireland is both anti-Israel and anti-semitic. At an Israeli government level, it’s understood that Ireland’s view is at the extreme end of the spectrum. While it accepts criticism from its other allies such as the US, it’s said to believe that Ireland goes too far. And in a manner that is unhelpful.
During his visit, Micheál Martin attended numerous fora such as a speech to the Israel Council for Foreign Relations and his meetings with senior Israeli ministers including Prime Minister Netanyahu.
When asked by reporters his response to suggestions that Ireland is anti-semitic, he rejected these suggestions. “We didn’t pick that up in any meeting with ministers that there’s a suggestion Ireland is anti-semitic,” he said.
Mr Martin described linking it to de Valera’s actions as a “false connection” that was “shallow in substance”. “Successive governments have made it clear their absolute disdain and opposition to anti-semitism.”
In classic political parlance, his exchanges with the Israeli Government were described as being “frank”, “honest” and “open”, where the “importance of dialogue” was discussed. But the possibility of solutions, even with Israel holding talks with its powerful nearby neighbour of Saudi Arabia, remain remote.
If Ireland had had an aim to try to see if a course could be plotted for progress, it wasn’t making much headway following the first day of talks on Tuesday.
Even in the face of Israeli criticisms of Ireland’s approach, the Tánaiste was told what the situation was like on the ground from the perspectives of NGOs on his visit to the West Bank.
According to OCHA, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which operates in the region, 2022 was among the worst-ever years in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank in terms of factors affecting civilians since 2005.
“2023 is already set to be worse,” it said.
As well as increased fatalities and violence, the number of demolished buildings is on the increase. This is when buildings occupied by Palestinians are demolished. OCHA said that, in the first six months of this year, the number of demolitions was 73% higher than last year in East Jerusalem at 123 structures.
One of the reasons often cited is the “lack of a building permit” to have built that structure or home in the first place. NGOs say that applications for such permits are frequently rejected or undecided by the time of demolition. In East Jerusalem, such demolitions are up 10% this year, according to OCHA.
The UN agency also said that there is a “deepening coercive environment raising concerns of forcible transfer”. In other words, Palestinians choosing to abandon their land due to the pressure being put on them, from the likes of threats against homes, schools and livelihoods, access restrictions on farming and grazing lands, poor law enforcement against violent settlers and the revocation of their residency rights.
“The Israeli authorities have issued demolition or ‘stop work’ orders against homes, animal shelters, cisterns and community infrastructure on the grounds that they were built without building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain, impeding the development of adequate housing, infrastructure, and livelihoods,” the group said.
The West Bank Protection Consortium, a programme supported by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operation, 10 EU countries and Great Britain, spoke out strongly against the current situation.
Its chief, Allegra Pacheco, said: “Since May 2022, nearly 500 Palestinians — almost half children — from seven herding communities in Area C [an Israeli-controlled area of the West Bank] have been forcibly transferred due to increased Israeli settler harassment and violence, as well as ongoing Israeli restrictive building and planning measures including demolitions of Palestinian residential, community, water and livelihood structures.”
Ms Pacheco said in the last year Israeli authorities have demolished three EU donor-funded schools, including one just a few weeks ago.
She said:
Ms Pacheco said that international donors are supporting their provision of critical humanitarian aid to vulnerable communities in the region but said that their humanitarian space is “shrinking”.
“We are not provided by Israeli authorities with unimpeded access, humanitarian staff face harassment and violence by Israeli settlers,” she said, adding that the assistance they want to provide is absolutely essential to the communities in occupied Palestinian territories.
These are viewpoints that Mr Martin would have been made well aware of during his visit this week.
“There is a responsibility on Israel’s combined power to protect Palestinians in this situation and to ensure that the rule of law is applied impartially and objectively,” he said. “And that is a matter of grave concern.”
When Micheál Martin visited an all-girls school in Ramallah in the West Bank on Wednesday, it was a veritable red-carpet affair. The Palestinian Authority’s acting education minister was among the dignitaries to greet him, hailing the Tánaiste and the Irish people as “great friends of Palestine”.
Mahmoud Mosa Abu Mouis also said that he looked forward to Ireland declaring its recognition of the Palestinian State, which he “expects soon”.
Mr Abu Mouis may have jumped the gun. Ireland’s support for Palestine, although it may be stronger than most of our EU peers, is not without at least some reservations.
In his discussions with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later that day, Mr Martin said he raised the fact that there have been no democratically held elections in Palestine since 2006.
“That means people in their 30s have not voted for representatives to the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “And that’s not good.”
In reply, Mr Abbas said that Palestinians in East Jerusalem would not be permitted to vote in such elections by the Israeli authorities. He said he cannot have a general election without this population being included. Again, this is a problem that needs solving and the solutions aren’t easy ones.
As for recognising the state of Palestine, that is not something Ireland is ready to do just yet.
While it would be a significant step, the Tánaiste said Ireland going it alone among EU colleagues would have little impact. He wants a “critical mass” of European countries to move together on it, to have the strongest effect.
A pertinent example of the problems on the ground in certain areas, even away from the West Bank, came when he visited the city of Lod on Monday. Ireland contributes aid in multiple ways to the region, and one project it supports is the Abraham Institutes Project.
Lod is a mixed city of Jews and Arabs. The heads of the Abraham Institutes come from both sides of the fence. They want to bring the two communities together but described how it can be like banging heads against a brick wall.
While the equivalent of the local council is filled with Israeli citizens, the Palestinian population gets little to no representation. Playgrounds were said to have been burnt out. Buildings were torn down and car parks put in to replace them. No investment for infrastructure for that population.
In the central area full of Arab business owners, the street names are even provocative with one named after the Israeli Defence Forces. The Tánaiste was told it’s to “always remember who has the upper hand”.
After meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, the UN agency, and many others over a packed first two days, the asked the Tánaiste if he’d seen or heard anything to give him hope that there was any chance of progress. The kind of progress that could see a reversal of the escalating tension and violence in the region of recent years.
It’s worth reading his comments in full. While he said “one always has to be” hopeful, it struck a pessimistic chord. “I’ll take time to reflect on this,” he said.
“Yesterday was full on until last night. We met a very interesting group last night from civil society who were the two main people involved in Colum McCann’s book . I met with them last evening at the parents' circle. These are parents whose children were killed either by Israeli forces or by Jihadists.
"In Rami’s case, an explosion in Jerusalem. It’s a great novel by Colum McCann. I never thought I’d get the opportunity to meet the two protagonists but I did last evening with two others.
“Certainly in terms of what’s happening on the increased settler violence issues and expanded settlements, as it runs contrary to the two-state solution. On the other hand, we see what happens in talks between the Israeli government, the Saudi Arabian government and the United States, with a linkage to the Palestinian question that might offer some hope. But there’s a lot of work on that track yet.
“One always has to be hopeful. However, there is a concern about a shrinking civil society space which produced transparency and on the proper underpinning of human rights for all citizens. And then the absence of proper dialogue between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority. That will be concerning.”
Even as the Tánaiste spoke these words on Wednesday evening, reports were emerging of a stabbing in the old city of Jerusalem. An Israeli man was seriously wounded in the attack, and a 17-year-old was arrested by police.
It was a timely reminder. The violence here is worsening. And with other crises happening that dominate headlines, much of the world is not watching.
While the Irish government can repeatedly refer to our own peace process back home and how progress and a breakthrough once thought unthinkable all it likes, there appears little appetite or chance of anything like that happening here at the moment.
The talks between the Israelis and Saudis will be watched closely. That’s a potential source of progress.
The Irish State regularly fancies itself as punching above its weight when it comes to foreign affairs, a recent example being securing a seat on the UN Security Council. Making progress now on this at EU level seems to be a priority.
With no signs of Russian aggression in Ukraine stopping any time soon, among other things, it would be a Herculean effort for Ireland to make this a top priority again. Making it one in the EU could have a significant impact and force the hands of different parties into dialogue.
Despite what the Tánaiste himself described as a productive and helpful few days in the Middle East, whether even that can be achieved in the short term remains to be seen.
