Could Ireland’s dialled-up rhetoric against Israel trigger a corporate backlash?

The blowback against Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave for a series of tweets criticising Israeli actions in Gaza last October – he accused Tel Aviv of “war crimes” – couldn’t have been swifter or more severe.

Within days behemoth corporates like Intel, Meta, Google, Siemens and Amazon pulled their participation in the organisation’s flagship event in Lisbon. Others announced a permanent boycott.

The fallout forced Cosgrave first to resign as chief executive and then later to withdraw as a director of Web Summit’s parent company, Manders Terrace Limited. Cosgrave, no stranger to online spats, was guillotined in an instant.

The episode illustrated, if illustrating were needed, the power of the Israeli lobby within corporate America.

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Fast forward three months and the Irish Government, while not accusing Israel of war crimes, is arguably using even more emotive language in its condemnation of the country’s actions in Gaza.

[ Paddy Cosgrave and Web Summit vow to ‘robustly defend’ claims on impact of Israel tweets ]

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has accused it of being “blinded by rage”. Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney says it is “behaving like a rogue state”. He also said it was unacceptable “to behave like a monster to defeat a monster, which is what Israel is now doing”.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Thursday accused Israel of launching a misinformation campaign against Unrwa (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).

Coveney has also raised concern about the State-backed Irish Strategic Investment Fund’s €4 million investment in companies based in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

[ The economic consequences of the Israel-Hamas war ]

The Government is simultaneously pushing for a tougher European Union stance on Israel and potentially economic sanctions if it is found to be in breach of its trade agreement with the EU.

As reported in The Irish Times last week, both the Irish and Spanish governments have written to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen expressing concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza and seeking an “urgent review” of whether Israel is complying with human rights obligations under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for 28.8 per cent of its trade in goods in 2022. Total goods trade between the EU and Israel in 2022 amounted to €46.8 billion. There’s a further €16.7 billion in services trade

The letter from Varadkar and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez also asks that the commission propose “appropriate measures” that could be taken if Israel is found to be in breach of the obligations in the agreement.

The leaders noted that the war has seen almost 28,000 Palestinians killed and more than 67,000 injured, and there has also been the displacement of 1.9 million people “and the wholesale destruction of homes and extensive damage to vital civilian infrastructure, including hospitals”.

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The EU-Israel Association Agreement sets out a framework for free trade in goods and services between Israel and the EU based on “respect for human rights and democratic principles”.

It states that “the observance of human rights and democracy” is the “very basis” and an “essential element” of the agreement.

The trade involved is significant. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for 28.8 per cent of its trade in goods in 2022. Total goods trade between the EU and Israel in 2022 amounted to €46.8 billion. There’s a further €16.7 billion in services trade.

[ It is possible to support our Jewish friends and speak out against the unspeakable crimes in Gaza ]

Insiders say the request by two member states for a review will be difficult for the commission to refuse and, given the opinion of the International Court of Justice last month, it’s unlikely that such a review would detect no breaches of human rights on the part of Israel. Any possible sanctioning of Israel would, however, require the unanimous approval of the 27 member states.

The Government’s dialled-up rhetoric combined with the push for a harder stance from Brussels marks out Dublin as Israel’s chief critic within the EU but could it elicit the same sort of corporate blowback visited on Cosgrave and his Web Summit?

Irish Ministers don’t seem unduly concerned that their comments and agitation for greater EU action against Israel could land them in hot water. They also perhaps have an eye on a domestic audience that sees in the plight of the Palestinians an echo of their own historical struggle for independence

Ireland’s globalised economy is dominated by big US corporates, including many of the same ones that boycotted the Web Summit, and is therefore more at risk from corporate America’s ire than most.

So far there is no sign that the Government’s outspoken stance has damaged US business sentiment towards Ireland.

Boycotting a relatively small tech enterprise with a vociferous boss is one thing, boycotting a key US ally and a gateway to the richest consumer market in the world is another.

Irish Ministers don’t seem unduly concerned that their comments and agitation for greater EU action against Israel could land them in hot water. They also perhaps have an eye on a domestic audience that sees in the plight of the Palestinians an echo of their own historical struggle for independence.

Ultimately the contrast between the backlash against Cosgrave and Dublin’s increasingly emboldened stance may simply come down to timing.

[ Gaza’s largest functioning hospital under siege as Israeli war planes strike Rafah ]

Cosgrave’s tweets, which initially did not mention the October 7th terrorist attacks on Israel, came at much earlier stage in the conflict.

International support for Israel’s operation has dwindled since and in the face of such huge civilian casualties and what the aid agencies claim is the country’s tactical limiting of aid into Gaza.

Even staunch allies like the US and the UK are now questioning the Israeli government’s strategy and its stated commitment to limiting civilian casualties.

Either way, Irish-Israeli relations, tetchy at the best of times, have plumbed new depths.

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