Hundreds of people from 44 countries are sailing to Gaza in the Global Sumud Flotilla this week. I am among them. We aim to non-violently break Israel’s illegal siege by delivering much-needed supplies. I joined the mission because, as an Irish person, I have watched my government meet what our taoiseach acknowledges to be a genocide with little more than the occasional round of three Hail Marys.
In fact, that framing is overly generous. The Irish government is not just passively useless in the face of genocide; it aids and abets the perpetrators. US military planes potentially carrying arms to Israel routinely pass through Ireland’s Shannon airport without inspection. A 2018 Occupied Territories bill originally intended to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements is now in its seventh year of legislative limbo, with endless dithering as to whether it should include services. By Israel’s choice, Ireland’s central bank is, since Brexit, the sole regulating authority in the EU that approves for trading Israel’s explicitly marketed war bonds for sale across the bloc. Selling bonds allows Israel to raise cash internationally that it is openly using to fund its campaign in Gaza. In June, the Irish government defeated a motion to end the central bank’s facilitation of the sale of these bonds. There is a dystopian irony in actively choosing to remain Israel’s “home” country for bonds approval – in the financial terminology – while claiming to condemn its forced dispossessions.
