Ireland has no plans to expel Israel’s ambassador, the Taoiseach has said.
Leo Varadkar was responding to a call from People Before Profit in the Dáil following controversial remarks by Israel’s ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich.
Ms Erlich told the Sunday Independent at the weekend that she was frustrated at what she said was “misinformation” shared by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins in relation to whether Israel had breached international law.
She also said that Ireland was not a neutral country in relation to Israel-Palestine.
Last week, Mr Higgins said Israel’s stated intentions for future action in Palestine reduced international law designed to protect civilians “to tatters”.
Addressing the Dáil on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar said: “In relation to the ambassador, we don’t have any plans to expel any ambassador.
“We didn’t expel the Russian ambassador, and I don’t think there is anyone in this house who’s been as supportive of Ukraine’s battle for freedom as I have, but we took a very particular view that it’s important to have some line of communications open and that’s why we have ambassadors.
“If you expel an ambassador or close an embassy, the only line of communication is minister to minister, or sec gen (secretary general) to sec gen, and that’s if you can even get a phone call. We have citizens in Palestine, we have citizens in Israel, we have citizens in Russia, it’s important that we’re able to keep those lines of communication open. It serves nothing to close them. Even countries at war with each other have ambassadors and that’s for that obvious reason.”
PBP TD Paul Murphy described the ambassador’s comments as “outrageous” while he also criticised a tweet from a member of the Israeli embassy team in Dublin that suggested Ireland was funding the building of Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
The tweet was later deleted and the embassy issued a statement of clarification making clear the post did not represent its views.
It said the post was meant as an assertion that Hamas “abuses” the international aid sent to Gaza.
Mr Murphy said: “Certainly from our point of view, we think that we have to expel the ambassador and the embassy, which would send a powerful message to the people of Palestine and to people around the world that we stand with them, and we stand opposed to the actions of Israel.”
— Israel in Ireland (@IsraelinIreland) October 23, 2023
Earlier, during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald urged the Taoiseach to press fellow European leaders to call for a full and lasting ceasefire in the region.
Mr Varadkar is set to attend a European Council meeting in Brussels later in the week.
“Calling for a humanitarian pause isn’t good enough, pausing the slaughter to facilitate aid into Gaza only to allow the slaughter resume is a most perverse interpretation of humanitarianism and cannot be the international community’s response”, said the Sinn Féin leader.
“The only truly humanitarian action is a full and immediate ceasefire and then aid delivered to Gaza without the threat of attack.
“Ireland can and must be to the fore of this call, as agreed by the Dáil last week.
“So Taoiseach at the meeting of the European Council on Thursday will you tell European leaders that they must make this call for an unequivocal full ceasefire? Will you tell them that they must demand Israel stop its slaughter of the Palestinian people?”
Mr Varadkar, who described the violence in Israel and Gaza as “dreadful” and “terrible”, said he would seek to use persuasion with fellow European leaders.
“I will attend that meeting and I will do my best at that meeting to do the best that I can to persuade the European Union and the European Council to adopt a common position,” he said.
“It may not be possible for us to adopt a common position. We don’t have a single foreign policy across the European Union. We all have our independent foreign policies, which I know is something you (Ms McDonald) support, but I’ll certainly do the best I can to persuade our colleagues in other European countries to agree a common position.
“I won’t tell them deputy, that’s a very particular approach and might be the approach that you would adopt as Taoiseach: to attend the meeting, point the finger, tell people off and do a press conference afterwards.
“That’s not how you do this job. It’s not how you actually get things done in international affairs. You have to build relationships, you have to build partnerships, you have to build alliances, you have to develop colleagues and you try to use your powers of persuasion.
“That’s particularly the case for a small country like Ireland, which is not a major economic power or a major political power. We use the power of persuasion, reputation, contacts, that’s how we do things and that’s how we achieve things.”
