Ireland’s complicity in international crimes must end—and so must the persecution of those demanding that their government meet its obligations under Irish and international law.
Across the island of Ireland, a mass movement of people has mobilised in solidarity with the Palestinian people, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide and Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime.
The Irish government frequently invokes its commitment to international law and human rights. It has acknowledged that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip amount to genocide. Yet the government remains complicit in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Shannon Airport, used by the United States military in support of operations linked to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, is a stark example of this material complicity.
Compounding this complicity, activists who are attempting to force the Government into action are now being prosecuted by the Irish State.
Shannon Airport: Ireland’s Material Complicity
The continued use of Shannon Airport by the US military for the transfer of weapons and troops to Israel and elsewhere in the region makes Ireland complicit in the genocide and other grave violations of international law[1]. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) warned states in 2024 that providing support to other states engaged in genocide and violations of international humanitarian law is itself a violation of international law. Instead of imposing sanctions on the Israeli regime and immediately ending the US military’s use of Shannon Airport, the Irish government has instead issued an increasing number of exemptions for such flights through Irish territory and airspace, while refusing even basic inspection of the aircraft.
For over two decades, Shannon Airport—a civilian airport in the west of Ireland—has been used by the US military as part of its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Palestine. Despite a long history of principled Irish anti-war activism, including by ShannonWatch and other civil society groups, the Irish government continues to grant exemptions to the US military for its use of Shannon Airport. Between 2022 and 2024, 2,000 US military aircraft carrying weapons applied for such exemptions from the Irish government. Since October 2023, a growing number of exemptions have been granted by the government, reaching a 13-year high in 2024. Since January 2024, over 1000 US Military and CRAF flights–more than 30 of which were to or from Israel– have been recorded within 60km of Shannon Airport.
In October this year, the Ditch reported that the Government admitted authorising a US military aircraft carrying munitions of war to refuel at Shannon Airport while en route to an Israeli military base.
Ireland is a state party to the 1948 Genocide Convention. US military use of Shannon Airport is at odds with Ireland’s duty to prevent and punish genocide, as well as Ireland’s professed military neutrality. South Africa’s landmark application to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention, alleges that Israel is in breach of its obligations in the Gaza Strip. In January 2024, the ICJ recognised the risk of genocide in Gaza and the rights of the Palestinian people. Ireland then intervened in South Africa’s genocide case, advocating for an interpretation of genocide that would include Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
Duty to Prevent Genocide
Under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, states are obliged to prevent genocide once they know, or should know, of a serious risk of its commission. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has affirmed that this duty arises the moment a State “learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed,” and that it must employ all means reasonably available to it to prevent it.[2]
That threshold was reached in Gaza long before the Court’s provisional measures in South Africa v Israel, which confirmed and reinforced that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip presents a serious and continuing risk of genocide. The fragile ceasefire agreement has not altered this reality. Besides Israel’s failure to observe its terms, the ceasefire alone does not put an end to the genocide in Gaza. Genocide extends beyond the mere commission of mass killing and encompasses broader acts indeded to destroy a group in whole or in part, including causing physical and mental pain and deliberately inflicting conditions of life that could bring about the destruction of the group.[3]
Ireland’s legal duty to prevent—and not to facilitate—genocide remains immediate and unqualified, and its state responsibility remains active. Under this duty, states must employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide wherever there is a risk of its commission. In the Irish context, this includes ensuring that its territory, airspace, and infrastructure are not used to assist or enable the commission of genocidal acts.
Under the law of state responsibility, Ireland is obliged not to recognise as lawful nor to render aid or assistance in maintaining serious breaches of international law, and to cooperate through lawful means to bring them to an end. Ireland is also a party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Common Article 1 of which imposes on it a duty “to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances,” including in the occupied Palestinian territory.
United States Complicity in the Genocide
The US has provided Israel with extensive military, financial, and diplomatic support despite clear knowledge of the genocidal risk recognised by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Under Article III(e) of the Genocide Convention, such aid or assistance may engage a state’s responsibility for complicity in genocide. Its conduct therefore constitutes direct complicity and potential joint responsibility in the ongoing genocide.
The United States has long been Israel’s principal military sponsor, providing over $3 billion annually in financing and supplying most of its imported weapons. It maintains a weapons stockpile on Israeli soil and permits US funds to be used for Israeli-made arms. Instead of ending its support in the face of genocide, the United States has intensified it. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese highlights that since October 2023, over 700 consignments of weapons and ammunition have been delivered, tens of billions in new sales approved, and US aircraft and surveillance deployed in operations such as the first raid on Al Shifa Hospital. Its conduct therefore constitutes direct complicity and potential joint responsibility in the ongoing genocide.
Global Complicity and Ireland’s Role
Israel’s ongoing genocide has exposed a global web of complicity among states, institutions, and corporations that sustains Zionist settler colonialism and Israel’s apartheid regime at the expense of the rights of the Indigenous Palestinian people. Governments, including Ireland’s, have further undermined the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of those calling to stop the genocide.
Ireland is often perceived as a country that is more supportive of Palestinian rights than most Western states. This is a reflection of the sustained grassroots mobilisation by civil society, direct actions by anti-genocide protestors, and organising for boycotts and divestment across Irish institutions, including on university campuses. Despite this, the Irish government is Israel’s second biggest trading partner.
For years, the government has refused to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban the trade of goods and services with illegal settlements, a minimum requirement under international law. At the same time, Ireland has endorsed the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, a tool widely used to stifle free speech in support of Palestinian human rights and to delegitimise calls for international justice and accountability.
Civil Disobedience and Protest
Despite the massive show of Palestinian solidarity from the people of Ireland, the Irish state has failed to undertake basic measures to withdraw material supports for the genocide. In this context, protest becomes increasingly necessary to try to protect Palestinian lives. Shannon airport has provided key infrastructure which has facilitated support for the ongoing genocide. Therefore it is the site of legitimate protest. In order to prevent further loss of life, protestors have repeatedly targeted Shannon airport, acting from conscience to challenge Ireland’s complicity in genocide and other serious breaches of international law.
There is a long history of Shannon’s use in various acts which are illegal under international law, and protest against this. During the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq (2003-11), Shannon airport was used for US planes transporting equipment and personnel, and as a stop-over for planes in the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects to torture sites. In response, activists broke through the boundary fence of the airport and damaged US military aircraft on a number of occasions. The state prosecuted a number of these activists, resulting in protracted litigation. The most significant of these cases involved the ‘Shannon Five’ who were acquitted following evidence that they acted in defence of others (in Iraq).
The Gardaí and the Director of Public Prosecution have discretion as to whether to prosecute an offense. The DPP may refuse to prosecute where it is not in the public interest. It cannot be in the public interest for the state to prosecute non-violent protest actions undertaken to prevent genocidal acts and other violations of international law and human rights. The DPP has nevertheless decided to escalate this and prosecute under indictment in the Circuit Court, where the maximum fine is €250,000 and up to a 2-year custodial sentence.
In July 2025, The Ditch reported that Garda Commissioner Drew Harris denied knowledge of flights transporting weapons through Irish airspace — including shipments bound for Israel — that had already been brought to his attention. An Garda Síochána has refused to investigate such reported breaches of Irish law and potential violations of international obligations, while continuing to use air-navigation law to arrest and prosecute those who oppose such complicity.
Ireland’s Complicity in International Crimes Must End
The Taoiseach and Tánaiste have condemned Israel’s crimes, with Tánaiste Simon Harris stating that “words of condemnation are not enough when it comes to the horrific genocide that is underway in Gaza.”
Words are not enough: Ireland’s complicity in international crimes must end—and so must the criminalisation of anti-genocide protestors calling on the government to meet its obligations under Irish and international law.
Socialist Lawyers’ Association of Ireland
[1] The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Palestine in 2024 has detailed the responsibility of states towards the unlawful situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. See: Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Advisory Opinion) [2004] ICJ Rep 136. para. 273-279
[2] Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro) (Judgment) [2007] ICJ Rep 43, 431.
[3] See Article II (b) and (c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948, 78 UNTS 277 (Genocide Convention).
academicsforpalestine.org 