Israel-Hamas war: Irish government call on ICJ to relax definition of genocide for Gaza shows they know Jewish state 'is not guilty of actual genocide' say Lawyers for Israel
The fact that the Irish government wishes to relax the definition of genocide to fit the war in Gaza shows that "they know that Israel is not guilty of actual genocide," Jewish lawyers have claimed.
Lawyers for Israel UK - which also operates in the Republic of Ireland - was speaking after Irish deputy prime minister Micheal Martin said his government is "concerned" that a "narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide" leads to a "culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimised".
The Dublin administration's "view of the convention is broader" and "prioritises the protection of civilian life", Mr Martin said last week.
The resulting row saw Israel announce on Sunday that it was closing its embassy in Dublin.
Hamas says Israel has killed 44,000 people out of some 21.million in Gaza since its unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. However the organisation - classed as a terrorist group by the EU and UK - refuses to say how many of those killed were armed combatants.
Mr Martin claimed there had been "collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza" which he said had left millions displaced.
As a result, later this month the Republic of Ireland is to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to broaden its definition of genocide - claiming Israel has engaged in the "collective punishment" of people in Gaza. The intervention will be linked to a case South Africa has brought under the United Nations' Genocide Convention.
But Jonathan Turner, CEO of Lawyers for Israel UK, claimed that such a move contradicted widespread claims that Israel was engaging in genocide.
"The fact that Amnesty International and now the Irish Republic are seeking to redefine 'genocide' shows they know that Israel is not guilty of actual genocide," he said.
(The legal definition of genocide requires a motive "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”).
He added: "The excuse that they seek to broaden the meaning of 'genocide' in order to avoid impunity is bogus. There are plenty of other rules of international humanitarian law and international criminal law regulating the conduct of armed conflict. In truth this is an exercise in Holocaust minimisation; they are trying to pretend that the Holocaust and other genocides are not really different from other armed conflicts. This is a further manifestation of the racism against Jews that pervades Irish society from top to bottom.”
Irish citizen Ben O'Dowd, spokesman for Ireland Israel Alliance, said the move shows his country understands the Israel-Hamas war does not fit the definition of genocide.
"Ultimately, this action is shameful by the Irish government," he said. "Cognisant of the fact that the Israel-Hamas conflict fits no historical nor rational definition of genocide, this is a motion seeking to dilute the very definition applied to genocides like the Shoah [Holocaust], to suit political interests - that of the Irish government. It's an insult to Holocaust survivors, and genuine survivors of genocide across the globe.
Dublin based Paddy Monaghan of the Evangelical Catholic Initiative described the move by his government as “appalling”.
He added: “Another way of looking at it is that the Irish government is finally admitting that Israel is not committing genocide.”