As Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, lodges his application for full membership of the UN (September 2011), the Irish Palestinian community remain hopeful that some kind of history will be made today. They are, however, aware that observer rights as a non-member state, equivalent to that of the Holy See, will be the outcome. President Obama has already told the Palestinian President that he will veto his bid for UN membership, meaning it will now not be recommended to the General Assembly thereby making full membership of the UN impossible. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the President’s position saying he deserved a “badge of honour”. So what now for Palestinians and Israelis living in Ireland as the current application is dead in the water?
While the application being lodged is somewhat academic at this stage, the Irish Palestinian community were always realistic about their chances of success. This was very much the mood at the Palestinian Cultural Day at Liberty hall last weekend organised by the Mission of Palestine in Ireland, SIPTU and Sadaka – The Irish Palestinian Alliance.
Speaking with Dr. David Morrison of Sadaka, who gave a comprehensive overview of the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations since the end of the Second World War, he underlined the importance of the application for Palestinians. Both he and Dr. Bassam Naser, head of the Palestinian community in Ireland, are conscious of the thousands of Palestinians who have ‘…become refugees all around the world…’, as a result of their villages being destroyed. He is conscious also of those, many who are close friends, currently living in the region who must travel 3 – 4 hours each way to work and to go about their ‘normal daily business’. Both are also realistic that the bid itself and that its rejection will lead to even more violence in the short term. For them, the application is nonetheless important and another milestone towards ‘full nationhood and independence based on the 1967 borders’. They are hopeful too that it will lead to the return home of so many refugees who have had to flee their homes over the years. They are also acutely aware that a successful application would give Palestinians access to bodies such as the IMF and most importantly the International Criminal Court.
Dr. Morrison finds Israeli opposition to the application perplexing in the long-term given that, ‘demographics is against them’ and that their reluctance to give up the West Bank ‘is costing them in terms of trade with their neighbours’. Lots of Israelis have the right to an EU passport and German passports are apparently ‘been taken out hand over fist’. Perplexing to him also is that, ‘the atmosphere in the Middle East is changing against Israel’ through losing an ally in Turkey and ‘a new regime in Egypt that will be less favourable towards Israel’. This remains to be seen and is by no means so clear cut.
Sadaka’s hope is that the Irish Government will support the Palestinian position in the future but in the absence of a clear stance from the EU, total support from the Irish Government looks increasing unlikely. The furthest the Irish Government have gone is to show ‘general support for the establishment of a Palestinian state’.
There is of course an Israeli community in Ireland, while much smaller in number. Theirs paints a somewhat different picture, as articulated by Yanky Fachler, Chair of the Israeli-Irish Group. He believes that the application is ‘quite dangerous’ as it is being made in the absence of ‘real negotiations’. With family in the area and a regular visitor to Israel too, Yanky is keenly aware of the realities ‘on the ground’ and the realistic security threats that both he and his family face on a daily basis to their very lives. He believes that the situation we are in today is somewhat as a result of ‘squandered chances’ going back to the 1967 conflict where, in the aftermath of that conflict, the Arab League responded with their ‘3 No’s to Israel’.
While ultimately accepting that some of the Israeli ‘settlements will be sacrificed’ as part of an overall settlement in the future. He also feels that, contrary to the inspiration that some Palestinians are taking from the ‘Arab Spring’, that it somehow ‘usurped their focus’ so they feel the need to get it back with the current application. As Yanky puts it, ‘Israelis have had to fight to defend Israel and have spent much on sophisticated armed forces’ otherwise Israel would simply have ‘disappeared’ so there ‘won’t be much change’ in the short-term.
Whatever the overall outcome from today’s application, all sides living in Ireland believe that violence in the Westbank is regrettably the most likely outcome in the short-term. It seems certain, from speaking to both communities in Ireland, that a Palestinian state in the long-term, of some description, is inevitable with pressurise on the Irish and EU governments set to continue. It also seems certain that Israelis will continue to ‘defend their position’. Long term, however, both sides need to decide what is really important to them and look more carefully at the implications of the Arab Spring, if indeed there are any significant implications beyond the changing of faces. Similarly the possible ailing position of the US as, Leader of the Middle East peace process, also needs careful consideration. Consequently, the only real outcome from today will be both sides looking for new friends, in the long-term and maybe even the short-term too.
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