 If you were to ask many Israelis which European state was most hostile to their country, many would answer Ireland without even pausing for breath. Ireland may be beautiful, it may be a surprisingly popular destination choice among Israeli backpackers, but in recent decades at least the country hasn't exactly been overflowing with praise for the world's only Jewish state. Ireland has in fact repeatedly been called the most anti-Israel country in Europe. According to a report published in the Jerusalem Post in November of 2021, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Kovni even expressed his frustration at the label during a state visit to Israel. Were relations between the two countries always so poisonous? How does Ireland manage to maintain a somewhat healthy trade relationship with Israel in spite of all this political ill will? And when did Israel first recognize the fledgling Jewish state? For this video I dug through sources to provide a little bit of historical context about one of the most contentious bilateral relationships that Israel operates, at least this side of Tehran. Please note that this video is just a product of my own research and perspective on the topic. The State of Israel was declared in 1948. The first country to recognize Israel was its longtime ally, the United States of America. President Truman issued a statement of recognition on May 14th, the very same day that Israel was declared. Ireland however only extended full De Jure recognition of Israel in 1963, some 15 years later. I covered the basic differences between De Jure and de facto recognition in my video about Australia's controversial decision to withdraw its De Jure recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but De Jure means full formal recognition in law. To understand whether this recognition was truly as slow as it seems, it's useful to look at where Ireland's recognition of Israel sat within the broader community of nations. It's also useful to remember that Israel's process of recognition among the international community remains ongoing, even if the vast majority of nations now recognize the country. Thanks to the success of the Abraham Accords, the UAE, and Bahrain, recognized Israel in August and September of 2020 respectively. Morocco and Israel signed a normalization agreement in December of the same year. As of 2020, 28 UN member states continue to not recognize Israel. These countries include Syria, Saudi Arabia, and 13 other Arab League member states, as well as Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea. But it's not hard to find present day member states of the European Union that recognized Israel far ahead of Ireland. Running through the alphabet, Austria recognized Israel in 1956, Belgium in 1950, France in 1949, the Netherlands in 1950, West Germany on a de facto basis in 1952, Poland in 1948, Sweden in 1950. Nevertheless, Ireland wasn't alone in its hesitancy to recognize Israel. Spain, for example, only established formal relations in 1986, but what factors might have explained the Irish hesitancy? I came across an interesting piece in the Irish examiner by T.P. Omehani entitled Symbolic Step of Ireland Recognizing Palestine Would Mean So Much, quoting Paula Wiley, a lecturer in international relations at the University of North Carolina, Omehani states that, quote, the adoption of an attitude of non-recognition endured as a policy in deference to the diplomatic wishes of the Holy See. The Vatican, the article states, didn't want to recognize Israel until it was prepared to guarantee that the city of Jerusalem would be internationalized. For more background on the very curious history of the proposed Corpus separatum, I again point you towards my video about Australia, I will leave a link to that video in this video description. Wiley adds further that, Ireland's long-term policy of de facto recognition was, in effect, non-recognition. She also states that, to date, historians have accepted the thesis that Ireland refused de jure recognition to protest Israel's lack of regard for the holy places in and around Jerusalem. While following links across the internet in the small hours of the morning, I also dug up an interesting article from Foreign Policy published in 2010 by Rory Miller, who directs the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies program at King's College London. He wrote an entire book upon this issue. It's called Ireland and the Palestine Question 1948-2004, and he undoubtedly knows a few thousand times more about this topic than I do. Miller writes that, during the 15-year period that elapsed between Ireland's declaration of statehood and Ireland's eventual de jure recognition of Israel in 1963, the subject of what to do about the issue was, quote, the subject of regular discussions between Ireland and Vatican officials. Miller adds that a senior diplomat within Ireland's Foreign Service, Con Kremlin, told Israel's then ambassador to Britain over dinner that the question of holy places was, quote, a relevant factor affecting Ireland's ties to Israel, or perhaps preventing might be a better choice of word. Quote, it is a mistake to write off the Vatican position. Unquote, Kremlin reportedly told the ambassador before adding again, quote, by reference to what mice to the normal person seemed to be realism, unquote. Whatever the true cause of the prevarication might have been, the two countries did finally establish full diplomatic ties following Ireland's recognition of Israel in 1963. Israel opened an embassy in Dublin in 1993, and in January of 1996, Ireland established an embassy in Tel Aviv, in line with the policy of most world governments to open their Israeli embassies literally anywhere but Jerusalem. The Israeli embassy in Dublin is where my immigration process to Israel began, and from first hand experience I can confirm that the Irish embassy in Israel throws great Patrick's day parties and rents out a nice office premises in Ramachan just off Tel Aviv. So it's fair to say that relations between Ireland and Israel were slow to get off the ground, and since then Ireland has emerged as a frequent and often strident critic of Israel's policy via the Palestinians, including an important international fora. Like Israel's volatile relationship with Turkey, a couple of decisive moments have also had outsized effects upon the political ties between the two countries. In 2010 an Irish registered vessel, the MV Rachel Corey, set out as part of a larger initiative intending to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver humanitarian supplies. The governments of Ireland and Israel reached an agreement to unload the cargo at the seaport of Ashdod just north of Gaza and then transferred the supplies. The agreement however was rejected by the vessel. Israel forcibly boarded the ship and forced it to dock in Israel. The cargo was eventually transferred in its entirety to Gaza. Another key moment of test in the relationship came in 2010 when Ireland expelled an Israeli diplomat after it was revealed that Israel's overseas secret service, the Mossad, had used eight forged Irish passports as part of a successful ploy to assassinate a Hamas official living in Dubai. Within Ireland today, support for the Palestinian cause is extremely widespread. Petitions by citizens calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador are commonplace and a number of prominent and well-organized pressure groups exist, pushing to further shore up support for the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel. These include the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign known as the IPSC, which organized events throughout Ireland and Sadaka, the Ireland-Palestine Alliance. Ireland also hosts a small pro-Israel support group, the Ireland-Israel Alliance or IIA, as well as a parliamentary group, the Iraqis Friends of Israel. This latter group received a visiting delegation from Israel's parliament in July of this year, according to a press release from the Israeli embassy in Dublin. A large number of Irish members of parliament called TDs in Ireland after the acronym in Irish have emerged as outspoken critics of Israel. These include people before Prophet TD Richard Boyd Barrett, who has alleged that Israel treats Palestinians, quote, as an inferior race denies them access to food and water and acts as an apartheid regime. Saying that Israel, since its foundation, has been built on a system of oppression and domination and apartheid and racism, involving the murder of unarmed innocent civilians on a regular basis, arbitrary detention and imprisonment, land addonization, the displacement of people, the denial of basic fundamental rights, denying people access to food, to water and treating the Arab population as a whole, the Palestinian population as a whole as an inferior race. Leader of the opposition, Mary Lou McDonald of the Sinn Féin Party, has gone on record of saying, quote, to suggest that there are two sides to the story, that's the side of the story of Israel and Palestine, is utterly perverse. To suggest that Israel is simply defending itself is an obscenity. We need the State of Israel to be finally called out for what it is, a racist, apartheid regime. Many theories have been advanced over the years as to why the Irish seem so unanimous and vitriolic in their opposition to Israel. Many Irish people see parallels between their own experience of British colonialism and what they perceive to be Israel's colonization of Palestine. According to this narrative, the Irish, as the historical underdog of their conflict, should show allegiance to the Palestinians who face a similarly David vs Goliath battle against Israel and its mighty army. Friends and supporters of Israel have also alleged that some Irish support for the Palestinian cause and some of their opposition to Israel is in fact rooted in anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League or ADL carried out a survey of the Irish population in 2014. They found that 52% of respondents agreed with the statement that Jews are more loyal to Israel than the country they live in. 28% agreed with the statement that Jews have too much power in the business world. In October of 2021, independent journalist David Collier compiled an extensive analysis of Irish online debate around Israel and documented evidence of anti-Semitism in messaging shared by Irish accounts on social media platforms. I was born in Ireland and lived there until moving to Israel at the age of 25. My opinion for what it's worse is that the answer to the perennial question of why do the Irish seem to hate Israel so much is probably an unsatisfying one that can be summarized as it's a composite of factors. Undoubtedly there are those on the more extreme end of the spectrum who take issue with Israel simply because it's the leading global representation today of Jewishness. But many are opposed to Israel simply because they take issue with the policies that the country is implementing. Some friends have even told me that as a vowed atheist they take issue with any country that predicates its right to exist upon religion. There are two interesting facets about the story of Ireland's troubled relationship with Israel however. The first is that the skies over this bilateral tie weren't always so cloudy and overcast they were once even sunny like the weather in Tel Aviv and not the often cloudy weather in Dublin. And the second is that the countries have managed to maintain a relatively healthy and mutually beneficial trade relationship in spite of the overall sour tone of their political relationship. Let's return for a moment to Rory Miller's piece in foreign policy. For those interested enough in this video to have made it this far it's definitely worth a read and I will leave a link in the description. As Miller notes the irony of the fact that many Irish people support Palestine out of a feeling that they are also fighting off a foreign coloniser can be demonstrated by the fact that many Irish thinkers once supported Zionism for precisely the same reasons. After all Israel was once part of the British mandate and early Zionist militias who even drew inspiration from the tactics of Irish republicans employed guerrilla tactics to wage a paramilitary battle against the rule of the British. Viewed from this perspective one might even be drawn to the conclusion that the Irish and Zionist causes rather than those of the Irish and the Palestinians are more Congress. Miller recounts how a correspondent writing for The Bell, a leading Irish magazine once wrote in 1945 how, Never let it be forgotten that the Irish people have experienced all that the Jewish people in Palestine are suffering from thugs gunning Tarzans and British terrorists that the mandatory power has imposed upon the country. I guess it's safe to say that at some point the Irish change their mind on this whole question. Two years later Irish novelist Sean O'Fuellon used the same set of facts to come to a very different conclusion in toning that quote, If we could imagine that Ireland was being transformed by Britain into a national home for the Jews, I can hardly doubt on which side you would be found. So although it seems unlikely that Ireland and Israel can get on the same page politically, they have at least proven amenable to exchanging prescription medications for beef. Ireland exports chemicals, electronics, beverages and textiles to Israel and Israel sells chemicals, medical equipment and fruit and vegetables to Ireland. The trade balance has also at times worked rather starkly in Ireland's favour. In 2010 for instance Israel imported $520 million worth of goods and services from Israel while exporting only $82 million. In more recent years Israeli companies have invested in Ireland, seeing potential in the geography as a useful springboard for expanding into the European Union market. In 2019 Israeli company Wix opened a customer support centre in the Grand Canal docks in Dublin. In 2021 Ireland's inbound development agency, the Industrial Development Authority or IDA for short, stated that they were eager to expand their global footprint into Israel. The agency said that it was seeking to appoint a business development consultant in the country. One person who wasn't so enthusiastic about the news however was people before Prophet T.D. Paul Murphy who asked then Irish Prime Minister Leo Radker how the country could get behind expanding in Israel, a country that after all was practising quote pogroms within its borders. Stand for IDA Ireland to employ a consultant in Israel and ask whether Thomas you think that is still appropriate to go ahead with considering the situation facing the Palestinians now the role of the Israeli state in terms of apartheid conditions, pogroms within the borders of Israel in terms of ethnic cleansing. Yes a member of parliament claimed that Israel was conducting ethnic cleansing and carrying out quote pogroms within its borders and no the comments were not condemned in the Irish media. And I think that tells you just about everything you need to know about Ireland's relationship with Israel. I hope that you've enjoyed this whistle stop tour of Ireland's complicated bilateral relationship with Israel. 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