Why the Irish support Palestine

As the world scrambled to respond to Israel’s deadly May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, the first reaction came from an unlikely source: Ireland. On the morning of June 5, the MV Rachel Corrie, which had set sail from the east coast of Ireland in an attempt to breach the Gaza blockade, was intercepted ...

As the world scrambled to respond to Israel's deadly May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, the first reaction came from an unlikely source: Ireland. On the morning of June 5, the MV Rachel Corrie, which had set sail from the east coast of Ireland in an attempt to breach the Gaza blockade, was intercepted by Israeli forces. The ill-tempered diplomatic spat between the Irish and Israeli governments that accompanied the Rachel Corrie's journey to Gaza is just the latest episode in the countries' long history of antagonistic relations.

As the world scrambled to respond to Israel’s deadly May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, the first reaction came from an unlikely source: Ireland. On the morning of June 5, the MV Rachel Corrie, which had set sail from the east coast of Ireland in an attempt to breach the Gaza blockade, was intercepted by Israeli forces. The ill-tempered diplomatic spat between the Irish and Israeli governments that accompanied the Rachel Corrie’s journey to Gaza is just the latest episode in the countries’ long history of antagonistic relations.

The Palestinian issue has long occupied a place in the Irish consciousness far greater than geographic, economic, or political considerations appear to merit. Perceived parallels with the Irish national experience, however, have inspired an emotional connection with Palestine that has inspired Irish activism in the region up to the present day.

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Rory Miller is director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Program at King's College London. He is the author of Ireland and the Palestine Question 1948-2004, published in 2005, and Inglorious Disarray: Europe, Israel and the Palestinians, forthcoming in 2011.

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