SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has said she would not be in favour of boycotting the St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House over US support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Speaking to The Journal, McDonald said she has spoken to the US Ambassador Clare Cronin and other US representatives about where Sinn Féin stands on the issue.
When asked if the situation carries on into the new year, and the US continues its support for Israel’s bombardment of Palestine, would she be supportive of calls to boycott the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to Washington DC, she said:
“I think you need to be very careful about any idea of boycotting, the Irish relationship with the United States is a very long standing one, a very valuable one, on many, many dimensions.
“I don’t think boycotting an event like that would resolve the issue at hand in the Middle East.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is due to make the trip stateside next March for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. McDonald also travels to the US and Washington DC annually to mark the event.
Her comments come after a number of politicians boycotted a dinner at the US ambassador’s residence over the country’s backing of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“I think we need to be clear that that relationship for us is valuable, not least in terms of the evolution of our own peace process. But I certainly accept, and I have no doubt that the American system, if you listen to President Biden recently, he has acknowledged himself that Israel has lost the world. They have lost world opinion, for the simple reason that that no reasoned person, irrespective of the political spectrum they’re on, could witness that. Just stop, this has to stop.
“So I don’t think anybody should imagine that anybody in the American system is in any way confused about the Sinn Féin stance as regards Palestine, or indeed the Irish stance, the Irish public opinion on Palestine. And it’s interesting, if you look stateside, it’s different now. American public opinion is in a different place than it would have been saying a decade ago on this on this question,” said the Dublin Central TD.
McDonald said she spoke to the US ambassador to Ireland “quite recently” and other US officials where “the issue of Palestine did come up”.
“They know full well our analysis. I’m not shy about sharing it with them… America is very much on the right side of things in terms of the Irish peace process. I would like to see the United States very much on the right side of building peace in the Middle East,” she said.
McDonald said the scale of the onslaught on the people of Gaza has been “absolutely horrifying”.
“I mean, they are pulverising Gaza. It’s televised, it’s happening before our eyes, and it’s very difficult for me to kind of reconcile how anybody with influence or authority or power, could stand in the way of a ceasefire, this is what we should all be pressing for. And by and large, it is what the world is calling for.”
She acknowledged that the Irish government is working with other EU countries, like the Spanish and Belgians to try and push the European position.
“I think Ursula von der Leyen, when she gave the green light to Israel, I think people were horrified by that,” she said.
As president of the European Commission von der Leyen was quick to pledge support to Israel, despite concerns that the country’s response to the 7 October Hamas attacks would have catastrophic impacts for Gaza’s civilian population.
“The European Union stands with Israel,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, the day Hamas attacked civilians and captured hostages, alongside a picture of the European Commission headquarters lit up with the Israeli flag.
On 13 October von der Leyen visited Israel to express solidarity.
By the following day von der Leyen appeared to be feeling the pressure, issuing her first statement to acknowledge the threat to Gaza’s civilians. In it she announced that the EU would be tripling its humanitarian aid.
“There is no justification for Hamas’ heinous act of terror,” she wrote in a social media post. “Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time civilians in Gaza are also victims of Hamas.”
The majority of Irish MEPs have accused the Commission President of overstepping her mandate.
McDonald said the tweet sent by the Commission president “gave people a pause for thought”, particularly when there is an ongoing discussion about Ireland’s neutrality.
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