Ireland–Canada: contrasting positions on Gaza in an evolving world

Ireland's decision to join South Africa in the case against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice contrasts with Canada's support of Israel in Gaza. In the new geo-political order taking shape, Canada is clearly aligned with the past of NATO and the Anglosphere and not with the evolving and future multi-polar world. Ireland is not a NATO member and has a long-standing policy of political neutrality. But Ireland, a European Union member, also has strong cultural and corporate links with the United States. This requires a delicate and nuanced role to balance Ireland's Western position and its position of support for developing countries and for anti-colonialism in general. Canada's refusal to spell out and condemn the widespread destruction of property in Gaza and the attempt to obliterate a whole people contrasts strongly with Ireland's, where at government and at street level there is widespread condemnation. Ireland's own experience of colonialism is undoubtedly a factor here. As a member of NATO, Canada's hands in foreign policy are tied to some degree but not to the degree of silence in the face of atrocity. Gaza is another chapter in the long history of imperial slaughter.