THOSE following the debate about Irish politicians wining and dining with ‘Genocide Joe’ as he funds mass murder in Gaza will have noticed an about-turn in Gerry Adam’s assessment of the situation in his column.

Speaking in January, Mr Adams insisted that Sinn Féin’s attendance at a White House shindig was primarily about Ireland’s “own struggle”. In last week’s Andersonstown News, he now says the party’s “focus was and is” on Palestine.

The doublespeak follows weeks of backlash over the decision by Sinn Féin leaders to rub shoulders with the US Premier. But even the fresh claim that Michelle O’Neill’s focus was on Palestine is at odds with the news reports of seemingly meek efforts to challenge Biden on Gaza.

Sinn Féin’s choice to break with BDS was a source of division in the solidarity movement, where the vast majority of activists disagreed with the White House visit. Now, Sinn Féin is in overdrive to muddy the waters and sully those who have vocalised their opposition.

There can be unity in the solidarity movement in Ireland, of course, where we work alongside those we may otherwise disagree with for an overarching goal. Indeed, for most of the past six months, since Israel began a bloody genocide in Gaza, all sections of the solidarity movement have been unified around the core principles of BDS.

That does not command, however, that when leading Irish politicians publicly break with those principles that the movement should neuter their demands so that those in power are more comfortable in their sell-out.

Take the example of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland. When Sinn Féin reneged on the calls for expulsion, critics were called “splitters”, “wreckers” and worse. By contrast, the power of the movement holding their feet to the fire delivered an almighty u-turn which re-unified the movement around this fundamental demand.

In October, just seven TDs voted for a People Before Profit proposal to expel the Israel Ambassador from Ireland. A few weeks later, that number jumped to 55 because the Palestine solidarity movement refused to drop the demand or dampen their criticisms of those who ignored them.

Against the harrowing background of genocide in Gaza, the protest movement that has swept Ireland is some of the largest seen in my lifetime. 

The expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador, like so much else, is there to be won in the period ahead.

The role of US imperialism must be in our sights too. Biden’s cabal could end this genocide tomorrow, but Israel is their outpost in the Middle East. Our position in the West, coupled with deep flowing anti-colonialism, leaves Ireland keenly placed to leverage pressure on the US. That is not even to mention the Irish American support Joe Biden will rely heavily upon in the upcoming election.

Clearly, relations with the US administration are a key pillar of the Sinn Féin project for a united Ireland. ‘We’re open for business’ was the key message from Michelle O’Neill in Washington. But what kind of united Ireland will be achieved through bending the knee to the architects of genocide?

No political party should get a free pass when their friends in the White House are responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Those who stalk the corridors of power in Washington are the stalwarts of US imperialism and no new Ireland should be beholden to their agenda. 

It should be a note of pride that our solidarity movement is unwilling to genuflect to Israel’s imperialist allies in the US and elsewhere. We should remain unified around the call for BDS to smash Israeli apartheid in the manner that South African apartheid was smashed. The power of our movement can build pressure on those who waver to stand with us.

Matt Collins,
People Before Profit