Ireland has no plans to expel Israel’s ambassador, says Prime Minister, reports RTE.
Leo Varadkar was responding to calls from the opposition People Before Profit (PBP) following comments by Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich.
Over the weekend, Ms. Ehrlich told the Sunday Independent that she was disappointed by what she called “misinformation” shared by President Michael D. Higgins about whether Israel had violated international law.
Last week, President Higgins said that Israel’s expressed intentions regarding future actions in Palestine undermine international law designed to protect civilians.
Addressing the Dáil today, 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,” reports RTE.
“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,” he added, reports RTE.
PBP TD Paul Murphy described the ambassador’s comments as “outrageous” after he criticized a tweet by a member of the Israeli Embassy team in Dublin that suggested Ireland was financing Hamas tunnels in 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,” reports RTE.
Earlier during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on the Prime Minister to put pressure on other European leaders to call for a complete and lasting ceasefire in the region.
Mr Varadkar will attend the European Council meeting in Brussels later this week.
The Sinn Féin leader said: “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. 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,” reports RTE.
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