Ireland calls Israeli reprimand ‘totally unacceptable’ after envoy shows footage from October 7

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin on Friday called Israel’s reprimand of its ambassador “completely unacceptable” after Dublin announced its decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

Ireland, Norway and Spain announced on Wednesday that they would officially recognize their statehood on May 28 and Israel immediately promised to take countermeasures, while recalling its ambassadors from the three countries for immediate consultations .

Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuinness and her Norwegian and Spanish counterparts were summoned on Thursday. The Foreign Ministry said it showed them a video of the kidnapping of five female soldiers from a base during the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, after which the three women were dressed by high-ranking diplomats.

The video footage, released Wednesday by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, was taken by body cameras worn by Hamas terrorists as they attacked the base near the Gaza border, and shows Liri Albag, Karina Ariev , Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy, all five are still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister, told reporters: “I find this completely unacceptable and it is no way to treat diplomats, and it is outside the norm by which diplomats are treated in any country. »

Showing the video to the ambassador in front of Israeli media was something they had never “witnessed before in other countries or jurisdictions,” he added.

“Most people would accept internationally that this is not within the parameters of acceptable standards in terms of how to interact with diplomats,” he said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the video would be released as a “tough move” or formal diplomatic protest.

Israeli officials have repeatedly criticized all three countries. Katz called their decision “a gold medal for the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped our daughters and burned infants.”

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said the recognition was “an unequivocal statement of support for a two-state solution, the only credible path to peace and security for Israel, for Palestine and for their peoples.”

The recognition of a Palestinian state by the three countries is the latest in a series of diplomatic setbacks for Israel in its fight against Hamas. On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court announced it was seeking arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for potential war crimes, as well as three Hamas leaders, while on Friday the Court International Justice has issued a somewhat ambiguous ruling ordering Israel to put an end to military operations in Rafah, which risk destroying the civilian population hosted there.

Israel argued that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state would now be seen as recompense for the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were massacred and 252 kidnapped, many of whom remain hostages in Gaza. Israel’s military campaign to rid the Gaza Strip of the Hamas terror group has generated global sympathy for the Palestinians and galvanized support for statehood in some capitals.

The measures taken by each country do not affect the EU’s recognition of a Palestinian state, as this decision must be taken unanimously by all member states.

Eight European Union countries recognize a Palestinian state: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Slovakia. Malta recognizes the concept of statehood and has indicated that it may soon recognize statehood, alongside Slovenia.

Sweden is the only country to have recognized a Palestinian state while already a member of the EU, the other countries having done so when they were part of the Soviet bloc.

Norway is not a member of the EU, but is closely aligned with it and is a member of the European Economic Area.