Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When thinking about why people make decisions on exemptions, even though they may not hold a particular moral position on a situation, and about the actions in relation to discretion or whether we should inspect planes when passing through Ireland, I was quite struck by the Taoiseach’s comments in the Dáil yesterday. In light of the arms embargo Bill and related Bills, those comments really made me think about why the Government may be finding ways to evade making decisions on carrying out inspections. In the Dáil yesterday, the Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, referred to the assertion of the State’s complicity in genocide in Palestine as a great old slogan. He compared the assertion of complicity to a slogan and that really got me thinking about what we understand complicity to mean when deciding on what should go through our airspace.

The Taoiseach also argued that people should focus their attention on the Israeli Government. Again, this was an interesting statement. Of course, he is right. The thousands upon thousands of people in Ireland who have demonstrated and called for this Bill to be passed today, and who are outside the gates of Leinster House each day, are well attuned to the reality of where blame lies regarding Israel’s role in genocide. However, that should not let anyone off the hook. Why is the Government not placing the blame squarely where it lies in relation to Israel?

In my reading last night, I came across material on what people understand complicity to be. Many of us understand allowing weapons or dual-use goods to pass through our airspace to be complicity. The definition of epistemic complicity suggests a secondary agent is epistemically complicit in a principal harm or wrongdoing if they causally contribute to the epistemic harm or wrongdoing voluntarily or non-accidentally. Choosing not to inspect aircraft is non-accidental; it is a decision we make. The definition also states a person is epistemically complicit if they make the contribution knowingly, or culpably ignorantly, and know or are culpably ignorant that the principal harm or wrongdoing they contribute to is epistemically wrong or harmful. Therefore, we are complicit in every sense of the definition in respect of what passes through our airspace or the planes we choose to inspect.

The Israeli Government is not accountable to the Irish people; the Irish Government is. Perhaps it is time the Irish Government focused its attention on the Israeli Government, as the Taoiseach has pointed out, and the active and tangible role it can play in bringing the untold horrors and atrocities to an end. Complicity does not necessarily mean the Irish State is directly responsible for the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people but, through our action and inaction, we are empowering the agitator. Complicity in these contexts means we can be indirectly responsible for the wrongdoing caused by others. We are.

Let us remind ourselves of the sheer and shocking scale of the wrongs. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. The vast majority of these are civilian casualties. Over the past 18 months, more than 18,000 children and babies have been slaughtered indiscriminately, and 90% of Gazans have been forcibly displaced. Despite this, the Israeli Government announced today the planned expansion of its military operation and land seizures in Gaza, a few short weeks after it unilaterally broke the ceasefire. Again, the Irish State is complicit.

To hold some sort of moral judgment on the situation in Gaza does not excuse us or absolve us of responsibility. We cannot excuse our action or inaction by stating we are just following orders or, as the Taoiseach implied yesterday, placing the blame where it really lies. We are asking the Government to place the blame where it really lies. In response to Mothers against Genocide and the Palestine protest, the Taoiseach insisted yesterday that we must place blame where it duly lies. He and his Government, however, represent the powers that can actually place that blame, through passing legislation such as the arms embargo Bill today.

In the epistemic domain, complicity can explain why certain individuals or groups share blame for epistemic failures, such as the spread of misinformation or the perpetration of harmful beliefs, or, in the case of genocide, a 70% increase in weapons flight exemptions granted by the State over a decade.It also includes the 5,667% increase in weapons flight exemptions granted to Irish registered civil aircraft operating outside of Ireland since 2021; the transfer of more than 1 tonne of munitions through Irish territory to Israel on three Lufthansa flights in the last week; zero inspections of exempted flights undertaken in Ireland since 2021; the facilitation of the sale of Israeli bombs by our Central Bank; the use of Shannon Airport by the American military; and unrestrained trade in goods and services with the occupied Palestinian territories. If that is not complicity, I do not know what is. It is very important to use language properly. The Taoiseach does not get to bend the meaning of complicity to absolve his Government of responsibility.

We have obligations under international law, if nothing else. Harm and blameworthiness reach as far as those who know what is happening and do not do all within their means and power to interrupt and disrupt the harm that is caused. While we may not have it all, we still have some power. Causal accounts of complicity do not address moral blameworthiness or intention. Being morally not okay with genocide or the slaughtering of innocent children does not get us or the Irish Government off the hook when it comes to the degree to which we are complicit in genocide. The causal account highlights individuals' contributions to other people's failings and in this context, it is Israel's annihilation of Palestine and its people, the failure of the West to stop it and the absence of principled intervention by the international community to end genocide. It acknowledges varying degrees of culpability, showing that someone can be blameless individually but still be blameworthy due to his or her power, decision-making, interactions or collective responsibility. We have collective responsibility and we are culpable if we do not pass legislation like the Bill we have in front of us today. Whether our Government wishes to recognise it or not, the Irish State bears that culpability, with complicity serving as a fundamental mechanism of vicarious responsibility for the transfer of arms to Israel and, for that matter, the purchase and trade of goods and services with illegally occupied territories. We are leaving a mark, through our action and inaction, that will inform a tragedy to be told for generations to come. I urge the Minister and the Taoiseach to spend some time reflecting on and assessing what it means to be complicit as we do not get to absolve ourselves when we are part of the chain of harm.