Symbolic step of Ireland recognising Palestine would mean so much

It is time for Ireland to stop procrastinating, show some real vision, and summon up the courage to formally recognise the state of Palestine, writes TP O’Mahony.

WHEN David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, stood up in Museum Hall in Tel Aviv to proclaim the establishment of the state of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Irish government expected that a request for the official recognition of the new state would soon follow.

The government at the time, the first inter-party coalition, was headed by John A Costello, with Sean MacBride as minister for external affairs (the department wasn’t renamed as Foreign Affairs until 1971).