Has Israel shut its Ireland embassy in 'a fit of pique?'

Ireland, with its diplomats known for their hospitality and amenable nature, has fallen out so badly with Israel that the situation has prompted the latter to close its Dublin embassy. But that should not be entirely unexpected.

While among the smallest of the EU countries, Ireland has been outspoken in its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza, with the latest figures showing more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, claimed 1,200 lives.

As the bloodshed has continued, that voice has grown increasingly bitter, with Foreign Minister Micheal Martin ditching diplomatic niceties for a more direct approach, saying on Monday that Israel’s actions had gone “beyond any moral compass".

Gideon Saar, Israel’s right-wing foreign minister, has also resorted to more direct language, condemning the “extreme anti-Israel policy of the Irish government".

Why, then, have the amiable Irish got to the point of diplomatic collapse that has seen relations plummet to such a chill?

Domineering neighbours

The pressure has been building not only since Israel’s actions after the Hamas-led attacks, but pretty much since Israel became a state in 1948.

Much of that is based on Ireland’s experience as a country that lived for centuries under the rule of the British, which was at times brutal and bloody, including long memories of the mid-19th century Irish Famine in which an estimated one million died.

That has led Irish Republic to have a “unique and historical” position on “calling out human rights from our background of being downtrodden and submissive and kept in that position for so long", said Tommy Hannon, a Fianna Fail local party chairman in Galway.

“Where you also have powerful, domineering neighbour denying your existence and dominating you,” Mr Hannon added.

That has led Ireland to argue for fundamental human rights principles as “a core plank of its foreign policy", said Michael Becker, professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin.

“Irish people have long felt a certain affinity to other groups who are oppressed or have suffered under some form of colonial domination,” he told The National.

Street influence

But the background to the decision is possibly more nuanced, particularly in the backdrop of Irish politics and the growing influence of the pro-Palestinian lobby.

Alan Shatter, a former Irish justice and defence minister, who is of Jewish heritage, told The National that the Irish government has been “influenced” by street politics in taking an anti-Israeli position.

He decried Ireland’s relative slowness in condemning the Hamas attacks then made the point that the government has since given the cold shoulder to Israeli diplomats while embracing those from Iran.

Mr Shatter, a former Fine Gael politician who was a minister from 2011-2014, pointed to the political party conference this year in which the Iranian representative was invited yet the Israeli ambassador was shunned.

The position taken by Ireland’s centrist parties had largely been influenced by the pro-Palestinian protests seen around the world, he said, but were given greater importance due to general election held last month with the threat that Sinn Fein would become the dominant party.

IRA and PLO

That brings forward a different analysis of the Irish stance on Israel. Sinn Fein, which was the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a designated terrorist group that in the 1970s developed strong links to Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation.

During the Northern Ireland “Troubles”, Palestinian flags and murals of Mr Arafat were also prominent in pro-Sinn Fein areas, particularly Belfast.

There was, according to Mr Shatter, a strong influence by Sinn Fein along with pro-Palestinian pressure groups, in organising the anti-Israeli protests that influenced the Irish government.

This in part explains why in May, Dublin joined Norway and Spain in recognising a Palestinian state, which resulted in Israel recalling its ambassador.

The final straw for Mr Saar was Ireland’s decision to join the South African lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, where Israel stands accused of genocide in Gaza.

Then before last month’s elections, Ireland’s leader Taoiseach Simon Harris said the country would enforce the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he entered the country.

Bad for business

Prof Becker said that Ireland had consistently taken a “very strong position seeking to hold Israel accountable” for what many in the international community “see as unlawful actions by Israel”.

It had for decades also been a critic of Israel’s illegal settlement policy, particularly in the occupied West Bank. “To the extent that this criticism is unwelcome in Tel Aviv, it’s not something new,” he said.

Indeed there has long been disquiet over the Israeli embassy in Dublin, either over security costs to protect it or, as one minister stated, “compelling arguments” for not allowing it to open over fears of losing markets in Arab countries and Iran. The PLO was also invited to open an office in Dublin.

And as a further apparent slight to Israeli, the Irish government also reopened its Tehran embassy in October just days after Iran bombarded Israel with more than 180 rockets.

Prof Yossi Mekelberg, of the Chatham House think tank, called the Dublin embassy closure “a big mistake” for Israel's government, not just in Ireland but internationally.

“They can argue and disagree with Ireland, but not close the embassy; that's not the way to conduct diplomacy with friendly countries,” he told The National. “If you have disagreements, you can call in the Irish ambassador in Israel and give him a dressing down.”

Closing the embassy was an “overreaction” that would only further isolate Israel diplomatically, he added.

The argument is also made by others that the Israelis have fallen out with the Irish rather than the other way around, with the suggestion that even constructive criticism of the country is construed as anti-Semitic.

Decisions in anger

The question that remains now, is that is there any hope of reconciliation?

Mr Shatter suggested that the Dublin closure could represent a precedent in which demonstrations are made across Europe to close others.

He also decried making decisions about international diplomacy “based on rage and anger”, saying it was a “fundamental error” to withdraw the Israeli ambassador in May.

“It was a politically stupid decision and it was a surrender to the haters of Israel. It was also convenient for the Irish government because they were running their obsessive, unbalanced critique of Israel,” he said.

Mr Shatter warned that the closure of the embassy will be seen as “enormous victory” by anti-Israeli parties.

“They are all interacting with groups across Europe, including the UK, who see this as a precedent for what could be achieved if they ratchet up further their campaigns in London and Paris and elsewhere, hoping the Israeli government, in a fit of pique, ends up closing other embassies,” he said.