Ireland’s president has been praised for raising awareness about the ongoing horrors in Gaza during a speech to mark National Holocaust Day on Sunday.
President Michael D Higgins made a keynote address at a Holocaust memorial event in Dublin marking the murder of 6 million Jews and other minorities by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, speaking about this dark chapter in European history, as well as highlighting the current suffering in Gaza.
Many international law and human rights experts have described the 15-month Israeli assault on the enclave as a genocide, where well over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed and almost the entire population displaced.
“It is to be hoped that those in Israel who mourn their loved ones, those who have been waiting for the release of hostages, or the thousands searching for relatives in the rubble in Gaza will welcome the long-overdue ceasefire for which there has been such a heavy price paid,” Higgins told commemorators at Mansion House, Dublin.
“The grief inflicted on families by the horrific acts of October 7th, and the response to it, is unimaginable – the loss of civilian life, the majority women and children, their displacement, loss of homes, the necessary institutions for life itself. How can the world continue to look at the empty bowls of the starving?
“The current agreement must end the killing, but, as a matter of urgency, deliver the massive scale-up in humanitarian aid which is urgently needed to save more lives. It is important that all remaining hostages are released and that all phases of the agreement are fully implemented.”
He said he hoped the truce might develop into a broader agreement between the two sides and “bring a meaningful peace and security to Israel, Palestine and the greater region, a peace that will address the root causes of the conflict as well as its aftermath, and be premised on the upholding of human rights”.
Despite speaking about his hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and the release of all captives, his speech was criticised by many Israelis who accused him of “hijacking” the Holocaust event to highlight the issue of Gaza.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, one of Ireland’s most important centre-right parties, defended the president’s speech, saying he clearly spoke out against the horrors of the Holocaust and was key to honour the dead of Gaza.
“I think it was important that the President of Ireland attended the event yesterday. I think it’s the seventh time he has attended the event, and this is always an event carried out with great solemnity and sensitivity,” he said.
“I think the president was very clear in relation to, obviously specific issues regarding the Holocaust and his absolute condemnation of the horror, the murder of the Jewish people, but also, I think, rightly mentioning the situation in the Middle East as well.”
Professor Tom O’Dowd, chairman of Holocaust Education Ireland, who was one of the organisers of the Holocaust event, also brought up the war during his address and spoke about the importance of preventing another genocide from occurring.
Higgins has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza and repeatedly called for a ceasefire to end the bloodshed, seeing him being accused of “anti-semitism” by Israeli politicians, a charge that even his political adversaries in Ireland have strongly rejected.
In a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza, Ireland recently recognised the State of Palestine and said it would join South Africa in pursuing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Israel responded by saying it would close its embassy in Dublin to protest the case and Israeli politicians and media have frequently accused the Irish people of antisemitism over their support for the Palestinian people.
The Irish government has also condemned Israel’s war on Lebanon, where Irish peacekeepers in the south of the country have also been targeted and injured in Israeli shelling.
