Call to recognise Palestinian state a self-serving proffer of false hope

Micheál Martin’s announcement that the Government intends to recognise Palestine as a state was clearly co-ordinated with Taoiseach Simon Harris.

Having demonised Israel and foolishly cancelled the Israeli ambassador’s invitation to Fine Gael’s ard fheis, which coincided with the sixmonth commemoration of the 1,200 slaughtered by Hamas on October 7, Harris theatrically announced in his leader’s speech that “Ireland stands by to recognise the state of Palestine”.

Martin referenced “the desperate need” to return “some hope” to the region, saying his proposal to Government would follow the completion of “wider international discussions”.

The completion date and whether the discussions include Israeli and Palestinian leaders is unclear.

The announcement is perverse, bizarre, ignores factual reality and is more focused on the local and European elections than practically resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is perverse as it rewards Iran’s terrorist proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), for instigating the current conflict, for the pogrom, the brutal atrocities and abductions of October 7, the 16,000 missiles targeting Israel, the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields and the promise of repetitive atrocities if the opportunity arises.

It also rewards Iran’s Hezbollah terrorist proxies for putting in harm’s way Irish Unifil troops by firing hundreds of missiles at Israel from southern Lebanon in support of Hamas and the PIJ.

It is bizarre because Ireland normally applies international law principles to the recognition of states. In recent years many states, academics, politicians and others have treated international law as a flexible friend that can be opportunistically redesigned to promote favoured narratives.

But international law is not the Wild West and has long-established rules. Recognition of states is dependent on there being a reasonably well-defined territory with external independence and an effective internal government.

President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, controlled by Fatah, partially rule the West Bank, a part still being under Israeli rule.

For 17 years, Hamas, after expelling Fatah in a bloody coup, ruled Gaza. That rule is now substantially diminished due to the Israel-Gaza war. For 17 years, Gaza and the West Bank have been separate political entities, ruled by conflicting political groups who hate each other.

And there is East Jerusalem, governed by Israel as part of a reunited city, Jordan’s partition and occupation of it ending in 1967. No single identifiable independent Palestinian territory ruled by a single government currently exists.

An Irish declaration of recognition in current circumstances is merely performative gesture politics. It would also cruelly mislead Palestinians and give false hope of contributing to a permanent end to conflict — 139 states have made such declarations but they have had no more impact on conflict resolution than declarations by foreign states recognising the whole island of Ireland as a single independent state would have had during the Troubles.

Recognition of Palestine is intended to expedite a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one I hope is feasible in the future to enable Israelis and Palestinians live as neighbours in peace and security. But that is impossible should Hamas reinstate its rule of Gaza as it is resolutely opposed to that solution and, like Iran, dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Ireland making such a declaration will not “restore hope” that endures but simply stimulate further terrorism, encourage Iran’s terrorist proxies to continue the war, Hamas to retain 133 hostages still held captive (many now believed dead) and to continue refusing a ceasefire unless enabled to reinstate its brutal rule.

This proposal is more about government parties cynically seeking votes in forthcoming elections than reigniting a peace process.