The ICC ruled that Israel used starvation as a weapon in Gaza.

On Sunday, the National Famine Commemoration took place in Longford to commemorate the estimated 1 million victims who died during the Great Famine, An Gorta Mór. Taoiseach Simon Harris used the event to note the “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding in Gaza, calling on Israel to “ensure the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid”, and described the emerging famine in Gaza as “repellent” to the Irish psyche. What wasn’t obvious from Harris’s speech, however, was that the Israeli Ambassador was also invited, and was in attendance, at the event.

According to original reporting from The Journal, a spokesperson from the Israeli embassy stated that Ambassador Erlich was “honoured to be a guest” and “wished to express her sympathy and solidarity with the Irish nation which suffered the greatest tragedy in its history in the 1840s.” The statement went on to state that “There are some parallels with the Holocaust which occurred a century later, the greatest tragedy in the history of the Jewish people.”

However, the spokesperson criticised the Taoiseach’s comments on Gaza at the event. “It is wrong and misleading to equate the Irish famine, in which a million people died, with what is happening in Gaza.”

Earlier this month, the head of the United Nations World Food Program stated that Northern Gaza has entered a “full-blown famine”. Reports of Israeli protesters destroying aid packages in the occupied West Bank continue to emerge. Just yesterday, the ICC accused Israeli leaders Netanyahu and Gallant of causing starvation as a method of war, extermination, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians. An arrest warrant has been issued for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

Minister Roderic O’Gorman has defended the decision to invite the ambassador, stating to reporters that “I have always believed in the context of the ambassador, that it is better that we have the Israeli ambassador here, that we can engage and continue to put pressure on whoever holds that particular role.”

However, other TDs have criticised the move. People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett took to Instagram to point out that Britain’s colonial policy, enforcing the exportation of food while Irish people starved, was a key cause of the Great Famine, An Gorta Mór, stating: “Today, Israeli colonial policy is creating a famine in Gaza.”

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