An open letter to the leader of the Green Party of Ireland
{For context: I became friends with Eamon Ryan in 2016 and worked with The Green Party in several different capacities until 2021}
Dear Eamon,
Last Tuesday you went on the Tonight Show and said Ireland joining the ICJ case is not a “PR” move. I believe this is dangerously misguided. Israel is waging a war on all fronts against the defenseless Palestinians. One of those fronts is a PR assault. Case and point being that the day after the ICJ ruling came into effect, Israel used its malevolent influence over western governments to defund UNWRA without any substantive evidence.
What you and your government partners seem so determined to ignore is that as Palestinians cannot defend themselves, it falls to all people of good conscience to stand up and fight for them. One of those ways we are called to fight for the Palestinian people is through a PR campaign. To apply PR-essure on Israel to stop its genocidal assault on these innocent people.
Because as the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has said, Israel will not stop until it is forced to. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the rest of the world to stand up and force them to stop their genocidal assault. Where is Ireland in that effort to exert that PR-essure? Missing in action..
To our eternal shame, your government has demonstrated time and again that it prefers to obfuscate and come up with weak excuses that absolves its responsibility to defend the Palestinians. Telling us that there’s already cases against Israel pending, so that’s why you can’t launch a legal challenge against them. Then when South Africa launches such a legal case, you tell us that you can’t support it until the preliminary ruling. And now we have that ruling, you’re telling us there’s not really any legal route for you to support South Africa’s case anyway. Even if your coalition has swallowed this cowardly nonsense, the Irish people see straight through it.
We see that you are more concerned with spooking American capital that MIGHT be sympathetic to or even outright Zionist than in standing up for innocent people. And in doing so you have betrayed the very foundation that this republic was built on. The right for oppressed people to have dignity, freedom and self determination from genocidal imperialists.
It is clear to us all now that you and your coalition partners lack the moral fibre and political courage required to carry on the work of representing this republic. It’s no easy task, building an independent nation of dignity and courage is not for everyone and it’s evidently too much for your constellation of career politicians. In my opinion, if you cannot stand up now, in this moment of greatest need, then the best thing you can do is admit you’re not up to the task at hand and step aside for someone who does and give them a chance of leading the green party into this coming election cycle.
Because I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt. The worldwide movement of people we always spoke about as a vital necessity to save the planet has arrived. It’s a movement full of brave people of good conscience that crosses political, economic, age, gender, racial and cultural divides and it’s ready to change everything. And you and your right wing government partners have decided to abandon it in its hour of need.
Unfortunately, we have run out of time to play your waiting game any longer. Because to do the capitalist thing, to wait for the shiny revolution to come, one that more “perfectly” fits our wants & desires, rather than supporting the revolution that we have in front of us means a 4 degree world in the coming decades.
I hope you understand I still consider you a friend who I look forward to speaking to again but I have no allegiance to any god-forsaken 19th century, trench warfare political-party. The only thing I care about is saving this world and building a better one. That’s why I worked with you and the Greens and that’s why I’m writing to you now. But if your Green Party is unable to defend the Palestinians in their hour of greatest need and fight tooth and nail on all fronts against this genocidal machine that is ultimately destroying the planet, it must be and will be replaced.
Sincerely,
Robert Fitzgerald
