The Republic of Ireland and the Palestine Question

The Republic of Ireland has a unique voice among Western states because of its colonial history and, later, the success of the peace process in the wake of the Northern Irish conflict (1969–1998). Both experiences have allowed successive Irish governments to pose as consistent advocates of peace and human rights. As far as the question of Palestine is concerned, the Republic of Ireland has unswervingly emphasized the primacy of multilateralism and international law while often expressing sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people in international institutions. As early as 1937, Éamon de Valera, then president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion born after the partition of the island of Ireland in 1921, addressed the Sixth Committee of the League of Nations to oppose the plan of the Royal Commission for Palestine (the Peel Commission) to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. De Valera also opposed the mass relocation of European Jews to Palestine.

The Republic of Ireland and the Palestine Question at the United Nations

When it joined the United Nations in 1955, the Republic of Ireland based its policy on three main tenets: a strict adherence to the UN Charter, an independent position, and non-membership in the blocs within the institution. Joining the UN during the cold war, it refused to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after it was established in 1949. On 14 August 1958, at a special session of the UN General Assembly, the Irish minister for Foreign Affairs, Frank Aiken, defended the right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees and the Republic of Ireland started contributing to the United Nations Refugee Fund (UNRWA) in the late 1950s while providing soldiers to the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon.

On 27 June 1967, on the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli war earlier in the month, Aiken addressed the UN General Assembly and called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the borders preceding the war and for any peace treaty to be “firmly guaranteed” by the UN as well as by a majority of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. He claimed that while Israel had the right to defend itself, it had no right to annex the territory of neighboring states or to flout the UN Charter by remaining in the newly occupied territories. As for the Old City of Jerusalem, Aiken wished to see it internationalized through “a special United Nations-Arab-Israeli treaty.” The issue of refugees was crucial to the Irish politician and he proposed two solutions: restoration of their lands or financial compensation. Aiken also stressed the importance of the UNRWA, to which Ireland was an increasingly generous contributor.

The Republic of Ireland was careful to ensure that its humanitarian commitment to the Palestinian refugees could in no way be interpreted as a partisan political commitment. It rejected a proposal by Turkey that the Republic of Ireland become the only non-Muslim country to sign a motion for a resolution on refugees (1968), and it voted against resolution 2535 (1969), which linked the refugee issue to the “inalienable rights of the Palestinians.” Ireland regarded the resolution as politicizing the problem by calling into question the very existence of Israel.

Policy Shift after Joining the European Economic Community

The Republic of Ireland’s accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 profoundly transformed its foreign policy. While maintaining its neutrality, integration into the European community allowed the Republic of Ireland to bolster its diplomatic influence. Garret FitzGerald, the minister for Foreign Affairs between 1973 and 1977, played a role in the Euro-Arab Dialogue, initiated after the 1973 oil shock to foster collaboration between Europe and the Arab world. This dialogue aimed to promote political cooperation, economic partnership, cultural exchange, and development initiatives. In 1974, the Republic of Ireland became one of the first Western European countries to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In the following year, under the Irish presidency of the European Council, the “Dublin formula” allowed the PLO to be involved in negotiations within the framework of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. In 1979, under the second Irish presidency of the Council of the EEC, Michael O’Kennedy, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, made the first reference to the PLO in a European declaration.

A significant turning point occurred with the Bahrain Declaration (10 February 1980), when the Republic of Ireland became the first EEC country to officially recognize the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and statehood. This declaration, signed by Brian Lenihan, the minister for Foreign Affairs, and Muhammad Bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, Bahraini minister for Foreign Affairs, reaffirmed the importance of the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The context of growing tensions in Lebanon, where the Republic of Ireland had deployed troops as part of the United Nations Emergency Force on the Israel-Lebanon border (UNIFIL), complicated bilateral relations with Israel. Four months after the Bahrain Declaration, the EEC, influenced by Irish and French diplomacy, issued the Venice Declaration (1980). Basing the declaration on Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the nine signatories formalized the recognition of Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and stated that the Palestinian issue should not be reduced to a mere humanitarian problem; it required a political solution involving the PLO. In 1985, the PLO set up a Palestine Information Office in Dublin.

The signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 marked the establishment of the Palestinian Authority with a new hope for peace. The Republic of Ireland, in harmony with the European Union and the United States, supported these accords as well as the two-state solution while continuing to denounce the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, seen as an obstacle to peace. Yasir Arafat’s visits to Dublin in 1993, 1999, and 2001 and the increase in humanitarian assistance through Irish Aid solidified Irish commitment to Palestine. The Irish government allowed the opening of a PLO office in December 1993. A General Delegation of Palestine was then set up in 2001 in Ireland while a Representative Office of Ireland was opened in Ramallah. The position of a Delegate-General was replaced by that of an Ambassador-Head of Mission by 2011

In the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, the first Israeli ambassador to Ireland presented his credentials to President Mary Robinson in July 1994, and the Israeli embassy was opened in 1996, the same year as the Irish embassy was opened in Tel Aviv. The Republic of Ireland was the last state in the European Union (that had replaced the EEC in 1993) to host an Israeli embassy, after granting de facto recognition to the State of Israel in 1949. Indeed, for many years, the Republic of Ireland was reluctant to grant de jure recognition to Israel with borders that were not those established by the UN. In particular, in this Catholic country sharing concerns with the Vatican, there was a strong case for the internationalization of Jerusalem’s Holy Places and suspicions of possible connections between early Zionism and the Communist Soviet Union.

War on Gaza (2008-09) and Its Aftermath

The launch of Israel’s war on Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 (called by the Israeli army Operation Cast Lead, and by Hamas movement the Battle of al-Furqan) was preceded by the visit of Irish foreign minister Micheál Martin to the West Bank in July 2008, where he met UNRWA officials and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad. At the outset of his visit, he stated that the Republic of Ireland was an early supporter of the establishment of a Palestinian state, an objective that he deemed to be one of the European Union’s priorities. During Operation Cast Lead, Martin repeatedly condemned the Israeli “appalling attacks,” which began in December 2008 and continued in 2009, highlighting the terrible fate of civilian victims, particularly children.

Diplomatic relationships with Israel became strained because of the participation of Irish activists in the Freedom Flotillas to Gaza in 2010 and 2011 and the use of fake Irish passports by Mossad agents who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leading Hamas figure and military leader of the Izzedin al-Qassam brigades, its armed wing, in Dubai in 2010. In 2011 Ireland voted in favor of Palestine becoming a full member of UNESCO, signalling support for Palestine’s international recognition.

Irish Parliamentary Activism in Favor of Palestine

In July 2013, under the Irish presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Union excluded Israeli settlements from any new trade treaty with Israel. The following year, the Republic of Ireland took a further symbolic step when the Seanad (Irish Senate) and the Dáil (the lower house of Parliament) voted in favor of a non-binding motion urging the Irish government to officially recognize the state of Palestine consistent with the two-state solution. The Irish parliament also voted in favor of a bill, Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, to prohibit trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in territories deemed to be under occupation according to international law. The Irish government did not implement the bill, claiming that the European Union, not member States, was in charge of the bloc’s trade policy, but it increased its humanitarian aid to UNRWA following funding cuts by the United States. This position was later reviewed in 2024 when Micheál Martin claimed that the International Court of Justice ruling against the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza could potentially free the Irish government to make its own decision on the issue. In May 2021, the Irish Parliament unanimously voted in favor of a motion declaring Israeli settlement expansion a form of “de facto annexation” and, in a joint letter to the European Union written with Luxemburg, it called for the European Union to take a stronger stance on human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly with respect to Israeli settlements.

Irish Civil Society and the Palestinian Cause

Due to the colonial history of Ireland, Irish public opinion has been particularly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause since the June War of 1967 and the wars in Lebanon in the 1980s, which led to a mass exodus of the Palestinian population. Support for Palestine has been particularly strong within the republican movement led by the political party Sinn Féin, which enjoyed close connections with the PLO and which has consistently made support for the Palestinian cause a priority in its foreign affairs agenda since the early 1970s.

Irish civil society has been very active in solidarity work with the Palestinian population through its nongovernmental organizations Concern and Trócaire, among others. It promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy against Israel through trade unions (such as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions – the first national federation of trade unions in Europe to support the BDS policy in 2007), national cultural organizations (such as the Aosdána), and sports associations and organizations focused on advocating the Palestinian cause (such as the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Sadaka).

The dynamic pro-Palestinian civil society has been influential in bending the foreign policy of the Irish State in recent years.

Israel-Gaza War, 2023-2025

Since the start of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in October 2023, the Republic of Ireland has expressed concerns regarding the treatment of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories. The Irish government, together with the Swedish government, sent a letter to the European Commission to ensure that European Union policies align with its human rights principles and demanded that respect for international law be a condition for maintaining privileged trade agreements with Israel. The Republic of Ireland also chose to maintain financial support for the UNRWA even though the organization was accused by the Israeli government of collaboration in the 7 October attacks.

Together with Spain and Norway, the Republic of Ireland granted official recognition to the State of Palestine on 28 May 2024 and agreed to establish full diplomatic relations between Dublin and Ramallah. In December 2024, the Republic of Ireland announced that it would join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.