Ireland has announced plans to officially recognize a Palestinian state.
It turns out that the three leaders of the coalition government – Taoiseach Simon HarrisTánaiste Micheál Martin and Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan – held a press conference at government buildings in Dublin on Wednesday morning.
Harris said it was an “important and historic day for Ireland and Palestine”.
Israel has recalled its envoys to Ireland, claiming Ireland’s decision will encourage terrorism and further instability.
Norway and Spain also announced on Wednesday that they will recognize a Palestinian state.
Currently, eight EU member states recognize Palestinian statehood, the most recent being Sweden in 2014.
It happens a few days later The International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar for war crimes.
Speaking on Wednesday, Harris said she was “confident that other countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks.”
He said a two-state solution, in which independent Israeli and Palestinian states exist side by side, was “the only credible path to peace and security.”
Referring to the founding of the Irish State, Harris said “from our own history we know what that means, recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value”.
He said the decision was made “to offer hope and encouragement to the people of Palestine in one of their darkest times.”
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, with hundreds of armed men infiltrating communities near the Gaza Strip.
Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli data.
More than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed so far by the Israeli military in response, says the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Also on Wednesday morning, Israel announced that it would recall its envoys to Ireland and Norway “for urgent consultations”.
“I am sending Ireland and Norway a clear message: Israel will not back down against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
“Today’s decision sends a message to Palestinians and the world: terrorism pays,” he said.
“After the terrorist organization Hamas carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state,” said Katz.
“This distorted step by these countries is an injustice to the memory of the victims of 9/10, a blow to the efforts to return the 128 hostages and an encouragement to Hamas and Iranian jihadists, which undermines the opportunity for peace and questions Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Addressing the “people of Israel”, Harris said: “Ireland stands resolutely and unequivocally in recognizing the State of Israel and Israel’s right to exist securely and at peace with its neighbors.”
“Let me make it clear that Ireland condemns the barbaric massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7th,” he said.
Harris called for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas “into the arms of their loved ones”, but added that “Hamas is not the Palestinian people”.
“A two-state solution is the only way out of generational cycles of violence, retribution and resentment,” he said.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said Ireland’s decision was a “clear and unchanging declaration of our deeply held belief that there can be no peace in the Middle East until the Israeli and Palestinian peoples enjoy the same rights to self-determination, statehood, peace, security and dignity.”
He added that the move was not “an act hostile to the State of Israel.”
“We recognize the heartbreak, loss and anguish of the Israeli people,” he said.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said Ireland “has learned the hard way that violence against innocent civilians to try to achieve political goals can and should never win”.
“Whether it’s a car bomb on the streets of Omagh or Jerusalem, whether it’s a rocket landing in Tel Aviv, or an unannounced explosion in a Birmingham pub, whether it’s an attack on the Kibbutz, or a bomb dropped from a fighter jet onto a refugee camp or to a Gaza hospital, it’s all wrong,” he said.
