Why Are the Irish Increasingly Siding With Palestine Over Israel?

[Mosby]

Some years ago, I was having coffee in Dublin with an acquaintance who was telling me about the invidiousness of Israel and its oppression of Palestinians. My main thought at the time was how I could change the subject.

Growing up in the Irish republican stronghold of west Belfast, I was well aware that the Irish have tended to side with the Palestinians in the conflict. I remember the Palestinian flags adorning lampposts alongside the Irish tricolor and the Union-Jack-on-acid Basque flag. I even remember when pro-British loyalists, some of whom had notorious links with British neo-Nazi organizations, started to fly Israeli flags in retaliation. Irony isn’t strong enough a word for it.

So, hoping to change the subject, I mentioned something about Northern Ireland—I can no longer remember what—and my acquaintance replied, “I don’t know anything about the North.” This response stopped me short. Gaza is 2,500 miles from Dublin. The border with Northern Ireland is 70 miles up the M1 parkway. Tedious as the conflict in Ireland is, and I admit it really is, the Irish people should have some familiarity with it.

I don’t have a settled view on Israel and Palestine. I have never been a fan of partition. Both Irish states were shaped by the border, and it took decades for either to transform themselves into anything like modern European polities. I may daydream about a secular, single-state solution, but it’s really none of my business. If Israelis and Palestinians don’t want to live together, it’s not my place to tell them otherwise. After all, Irish republicans haven’t done a very good job of persuading unionists they’d be welcome in a united Ireland.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117839/irish-support-palestine-opposition-israel-rise

Interesting conclusions.

[Maedhros]

1. I'd say that the Irish have seen the effects of occupation by a hostile nation close-up

and therefore identify with the Palestinian situation.

[TexasProgresive]

2. I'm sure the Irish identify as they were occupied by

a foreign country who artificially planted Scots and English in confiscated lands. Not hard to understand.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. It's the basic concept of international solidarity

Historically Irish republicanism made common cause with Indian nationalism, Cuban socialism, Algerian nationalism, the PLO, the Basque separatists. They saw in these struggles their own anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles.