However, given that she is the legislature’s chief delegate for relations with Palestine, this isn’t just a swipe at Boylan but at Europe as a whole.
Yet many of her colleagues don’t see it that way. Hence, some Irish politicians–from the left in particular–stand out as a beacon of moral clarity on the subject of Palestine in Europe.
Last October, Boylan insisted that the other EU parliamentarians reciprocate by banning Israeli officials, but, unsurprisingly, only members of her EU political family, The Left, have supported her.
“This signifies an unwillingness to stand up to Israel when they target EU politicians, and more broadly is demonstrative that the EU is unwilling to assert itself diplomatically when it comes to Israel,” she told The Battleground.
“Reciprocal travel bans should be put in place, and Israel must be held to account for its wider violations of human rights and international law.”
The Left stands apart from the rest of the EU parliamentary groups on Palestine, but Boylan’s place as a representative of Ireland’s Sinn Féin is especially significant.
For Boylan, Ireland doesn’t view the Global South through the lens of Great Powers theory but through solidarity.
When Sinn Féin recognises the genocide in Palestine, it reflects on its own history with the British.
When their members see Lebanon’s fractures, where Irish troops have served as UN peacekeepers, they can relate to sectarian conflict in which one group acts as a proxy for imperial malfeasance.
“Our experience as a colonised people who have had to fight for our independence undoubtedly shapes how we view the wider world,” Boylan said.
“Our solidarity with Palestine is born from our history and our commitment to anticolonial struggle and self-determination. The Irish people are very proud of Ireland’s record at the UN and our support for international law and multilateralism as a counterweight to the politics of might makes right, which are unfortunately becoming ever more prevalent. The service of our Defence Forces in the [UN Interim Force in Lebanon] is a source of great pride. Our peacekeepers have been fired at repeatedly by the IDF, and this, of course, is an illegal provocation by Israel as part of their wider commitment and campaign to undermine international and the United Nations and its bodies.”
Boylan is not unnerved by the lack of political support in parliament she’s received outside The Left group. While European governments are cracking down on pro-Palestine speech, Boylan believes public attitudes are shifting.
“The people are way ahead of the politicians on this issue,” she said. “The protests have undoubtedly shifted public opinion and have forced some governments to soften their support for Israel. I think the repression of Palestine solidarity that we see in Europe is specifically because governments are afraid of the power of the protesters, particularly in drawing attention to complicity with Israel’s genocide. I think voters’ attitudes are changing, and this means that government attitudes need to change also. Unfortunately, we see some countries such as Germany doubling down and becoming increasingly violent towards their own citizens.”
Sinn Féin has gone through a tremendous transformation. Once considered an extremist outlier in the north of Ireland, the party now dominates the region and leads the parliamentary opposition in the Republic.
While staunchly a one-Ireland party seeking reunification, it is now the chief left-wing party on economic issues, especially housing and workers’ rights, dwarfing parties such as Labour and the People Before Profit-Solidarity alliance.
That has put Sinn Féin at odds with the ruling neoliberal coalition at home, which also resists the Irish nationalist urge to side with Palestine.
This was clear when the push to rename a Dublin park, currently named after the late Israeli President Chaim Herzog, who was born in Belfast and is the father of Israel’s current president, Isaac Herzog, was scrapped after city lawmakers were accused of Antisemitism.
“The controversy over the decision to rename Herzog Park ignored some very crucial historical context,” Boylan said.
“Chaim Herzog was a member of the Haganah during the 1936-1939 uprising in Palestine. He was a member of the IDF during the Nakba and was intimately involved in the brutal dispossession of Palestinian land. The reaction from the Irish government was to interfere with a local authority performing its functions in order to placate the Israeli government, as they launched baseless attacks on Ireland and its people. The Irish government should have stood up quite clearly for the rights of elected councillors to name public parks and should have rejected the smears directed against the Irish people by the Israeli government.”
Last year, Boylan also lashed out at her Irish centrist colleagues in the European Parliament, saying it is “utterly appalling that the Fine Gael MEPs voted against stopping the EU from continuing to sell weapons to Israel”, adding that “This disgraceful decision is unfortunately, not an isolated incident”.
To his credit, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin told last year’s United Nations General Assembly that it is “not possible to describe the scale of the physical and psychological suffering endured by the Palestinian people for two long and brutal years” and “Ireland stands in full solidarity with them”.
Irish voters elected the independent leftist, Catherine Connolly, a pro-Palestinian politician, as president late last year.
Despite her ban from the Israeli government, Boylan is not deterred from keeping Palestine as a focus for European lawmakers.
“As Chair of the Delegation for Relations with Palestine, I will be holding sessions on issues including the NGO registration law and ban on aid organisations, the rights of Palestinian prisoners, self-determination and a number of other issues,” she said.
“More broadly, we need to see an actual ceasefire, sanctions on Israel and implementation of the July 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion, which means a full ban on trade with illegal settlements.”
With the US-European relationship rapidly deteriorating over Greenland and tariffs, the continent’s lawmakers are busier than ever. But Boylan thinks there’s a moral imperative to keep Palestine front and centre.
“To push for this, we cannot allow Palestine to fall off the agenda or accept a status quo of ever more blatant annexation and continued violence against Palestinians both in the West Bank and Gaza,” she said.
Photograph courtesy of Chris Christian. Published under a Creative Commons license.
