Ireland to recognize Palestine soon

Move expected for long time, but Dublin now in earnest due to new settlement expansion and law for expropriating Palestinian land, says official in Jerusalem.

Haaretz reported today (Barak Ravid, Feb. 9) that Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Zeev Boker, cabled a warning to Jerusalem on Tuesday that the Irish government was soon likely to recognize Palestine as a state.

An official in Jerusalem noted that Israel’s embassy in Dublin had assessed a while ago that official recognition of Palestine was coming, but in recent days, after Israel’s decision to expand settlement construction and passage of the law allowing the expropriation of private Palestinian land, this assessment has been reinforced.

The official noted that Boker proposed working now to block the move, both by asking the new U.S. administration to pressure Ireland to avoid recognizing Palestine and by having Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu call his Irish counterpart Enda Kenny to discuss the issue.

In December 2014, the Irish parliament passed a declarative resolution calling on the government to recognize Palestine. A few weeks afterward Irish Foreign Minister Charles Flanagan said Dublin was considering it. Ireland is considered one of the leading critics in Europe of Israel’s policies in the territories. Nevertheless, two years have passed and Ireland hasn’t taken this step.

In June 2016 Irish MP Darragh O’Brien submitted a resolution calling on Dublin to expedite the recognition of Palestine. In recent weeks O’Brien has intensified his actions in the Irish media and in parliament to bring the resolution to a vote.

Boker wrote to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem that O’Brien’s resolution could be still be voted on this month and that afterward it was almost certain the government would make such a move. Boker wrote that it was crucial to start making diplomat efforts now to scuttle Irish recognition of Palestine.