By Donal Devlin
Over the last 11 months our newsfeeds have been filled with devastating horror from Gaza. We’ve watched a genocide happen in real-time, as the world’s governments either sit idly by or actively support or justify the crimes being waged in the name of Israel’s spurious right to self defence. The Irish government has belatedly begun to speak of these evident war crimes with Tánaiste Micháel Martin stating in earlier this month that:
“The slaughter has to stop. It seems to me that Israel is premeditatedly facilitating and planning the killing of civilians and children.” And Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “The world is standing at the precipice of a horrific moment, and yet all levers to bring an end to the violence are not being used.”
However, the hollowness of these words has been revealed by the recent reports that the Irish state has allowed Irish airspace to be used in the service of the genocide in Gaza.
A series of articles carried on the investigative news site The Ditch has revealed that four flights containing at least 53 tonnes of weaponry destined for the Israeli State have passed through Irish airspace in 2024 alone. Transport of such ammunition has been taking place since October, soon after the Gaza genocide commenced.
Government duplicity
The Irish government had given categorical assurances in June that no such flights had taken place. In the wake of these new revelations the government has denied any knowledge of them taking place. This is hardly credible. Let’s not forget that the government has refused to inspect US warplanes passing through Shannon Airport to see if they are being used as a stopover as part of the supply chain of weapons to Israel.
At best the government didn’t know because it didn’t want to know, so it would retain plausible deniability. But in the context of genocide, this is nothing but complicity. The fact is that despite any progressive utterances about Palestine (reflecting mass pressure from below), the establishment in this country are cravenly obedient to US and EU imperialism. Successive Irish governments have facilitated the use of Shannon Airport for the transport of US troops in various imperialist adventures, along with many Muslims who have been kidnapped, tortured and detained without trial in the so-called “war on terror”.
Weaponry for genocide
One plane chartered for Israel passed through Irish airspace on 2 February containing 13kg .339 Lapua Magnum ammunition. This is the ammunition used by snipers in the Israeli army that can kill people from a target of 1.2km, and is used with murderous precision in Gaza and the West Bank, where innocent civilians, including children, are routinely shot in cold blood.
This same flight contained more than 16 tonnes of the ammunition primer used in 5.56mm ammunition rounds, the same bullet the Israeli occupying forces used to kill Al Jazeera and Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Incredibly and chillingly, it also included 2.7 kg of exploding bridge wire (EWB) detonators, used to initiate the detonation reaction in nuclear warheads!
Workers action needed
We can have absolutely no confidence in this government to end its de facto complicity in the Gaza genocide. We need action from below to ensure this happens by mobilising the deep sentiment of solidarity with Palestine amongst ordinary working-class people. Along with mass mobilisations on the streets, we need action from workers involved in the transport industry and airports such as Shannon.
The recent strike by Aer Lingus workers shows the power this section of the working class has. This power must be mobilised to ensure no weaponry can be transported via Irish airports or airspace. The trade union movement must be willing to break draconian laws that forbid political strike action, and organise for such effective action. This would be a small but important blow to the Israeli State’s campaign of terror and a powerful act of solidarity with Palestinians.
