There are two unfolding events of international importance which have a direct bearing on the politics of Ireland particularly as the world tentatively emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Firstly, the election of the Twenty-Six County state to a two-year sitting on the United Nations Security Council brings into sharp focus that State’s role in the affairs of International Law particularly relating to National Sovereignty, occupation and post-colonial practices.
Secondly, the decision by Israel to strategically ‘delay’ its annexation of sovereign Palestinian territory, with the full complicity of the US Administration, calls into question the very concept of International Law and the credibility of the United Nations itself.
The recent dismissal from the Programme of Government of The Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 bodes ill for any hope that Dublin’s presence on that Council will be marked by a robust and consistent defence of International Law and a tenacious pursuit of resolutions and justice against breeches of that law.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, comprising residential, agricultural and business concerns, are built on land outside Israel’s internationally recognised borders. Palestinian communities are forcibly removed from their land, their livelihoods and the produce for those livelihoods destroyed, to make way for these illegal Israeli settlements.
Under international law, the transfer by a State of its civilian population into a territory it has militarily occupied is a war crime. Moreover, it is also a crime under Irish law, irrespective of where in the world it is committed.
The denunciation of these actions takes on a much different hue when made within that body internationally established to bring such acts to an end. Will this ‘new’ Dublin administration rise to the challenge or will it stay true to its cowering conformity, knowing full well the colonial illegality of its own foundations?
Dublin politicians and commentators have lauded this appointment as a reflection on Ireland’s prestige amongst the international community for its peace keeping efforts in various conflict zones throughout the world. Yet the same politicians and commentators are oddly silent when it comes to Dublin’s efforts to invoke international assistance to resolve the territorial conflict on its own island.
In recent weeks we have heard talk from Dublin that their role on the UNSC will be to seek consensus, which in its most accurate translation, means they will tow the line determined by the veto carrying powers. The suffering and injustices perpetrated against the Palestinian people will continue regardless.
The partition of Ireland was a colonial act, its maintenance by subsequent British Parliamentary acts remains no less so. The very existence of the British border in Ireland is in violation of the very laws which Dublin is now expected to uphold.
For its own part all subsequent Dublin governments employed violent and liberty denying methods to criminalise the democratically endorsed sovereign Republic established in 1919. Those who fought and defended that Republic, like their Palestinian counterparts, were strapped to landmines, shot in extrajudicial reprisal, hanged in prisons, allowed to die on hunger-strike and imprisoned for lengthy periods.
Of late, and not for the first time, Irish citizens, such as Louth man Liam Campbell have, at the behest of British Intelligence services, been extradited in furtherance of this colonial policy of criminalising those they accuse of defending Irish national sovereignty.
Will the Dublin Government remain silent concerning its own human rights abuses of its own citizens at the UN Security Council in the same way as they have pledged to capitulate to those vested interests who continue with human rights abuses against the Palestinian people?
By way of directly addressing all these issues members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement petitioned the United Nations in New York via a submission setting out the case for the legitimacy of Irish sovereignty rights in International Law.
This peaceful process, seeking assistance to bring about a just ending of the Anglo-Irish conflict, was subverted when both London and Dublin pressurised the US Government into declaring our movement a terrorist organisation.
If anything emerges from this Covid-19 Pandemic, it must be a realisation amongst Irish republicans that the status quo will be desperate to maintain itself. There are opportunities to be grasped to advance the republican project but only if we can avoid a desperation in our own political outlook by repeating the same old mantras. New thinking is required!
Firstly, the election of the Twenty-Six County state to a two-year sitting on the United Nations Security Council brings into sharp focus that State’s role in the affairs of International Law particularly relating to National Sovereignty, occupation and post-colonial practices.
Secondly, the decision by Israel to strategically ‘delay’ its annexation of sovereign Palestinian territory, with the full complicity of the US Administration, calls into question the very concept of International Law and the credibility of the United Nations itself.
The recent dismissal from the Programme of Government of The Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 bodes ill for any hope that Dublin’s presence on that Council will be marked by a robust and consistent defence of International Law and a tenacious pursuit of resolutions and justice against breeches of that law.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, comprising residential, agricultural and business concerns, are built on land outside Israel’s internationally recognised borders. Palestinian communities are forcibly removed from their land, their livelihoods and the produce for those livelihoods destroyed, to make way for these illegal Israeli settlements.
Under international law, the transfer by a State of its civilian population into a territory it has militarily occupied is a war crime. Moreover, it is also a crime under Irish law, irrespective of where in the world it is committed.
The denunciation of these actions takes on a much different hue when made within that body internationally established to bring such acts to an end. Will this ‘new’ Dublin administration rise to the challenge or will it stay true to its cowering conformity, knowing full well the colonial illegality of its own foundations?
Dublin politicians and commentators have lauded this appointment as a reflection on Ireland’s prestige amongst the international community for its peace keeping efforts in various conflict zones throughout the world. Yet the same politicians and commentators are oddly silent when it comes to Dublin’s efforts to invoke international assistance to resolve the territorial conflict on its own island.
In recent weeks we have heard talk from Dublin that their role on the UNSC will be to seek consensus, which in its most accurate translation, means they will tow the line determined by the veto carrying powers. The suffering and injustices perpetrated against the Palestinian people will continue regardless.
The partition of Ireland was a colonial act, its maintenance by subsequent British Parliamentary acts remains no less so. The very existence of the British border in Ireland is in violation of the very laws which Dublin is now expected to uphold.
For its own part all subsequent Dublin governments employed violent and liberty denying methods to criminalise the democratically endorsed sovereign Republic established in 1919. Those who fought and defended that Republic, like their Palestinian counterparts, were strapped to landmines, shot in extrajudicial reprisal, hanged in prisons, allowed to die on hunger-strike and imprisoned for lengthy periods.
Of late, and not for the first time, Irish citizens, such as Louth man Liam Campbell have, at the behest of British Intelligence services, been extradited in furtherance of this colonial policy of criminalising those they accuse of defending Irish national sovereignty.
Will the Dublin Government remain silent concerning its own human rights abuses of its own citizens at the UN Security Council in the same way as they have pledged to capitulate to those vested interests who continue with human rights abuses against the Palestinian people?
By way of directly addressing all these issues members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement petitioned the United Nations in New York via a submission setting out the case for the legitimacy of Irish sovereignty rights in International Law.
This peaceful process, seeking assistance to bring about a just ending of the Anglo-Irish conflict, was subverted when both London and Dublin pressurised the US Government into declaring our movement a terrorist organisation.
If anything emerges from this Covid-19 Pandemic, it must be a realisation amongst Irish republicans that the status quo will be desperate to maintain itself. There are opportunities to be grasped to advance the republican project but only if we can avoid a desperation in our own political outlook by repeating the same old mantras. New thinking is required!
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