Trump's board of peace plans 'a land grab' in Gaza, says Higgins

Former president Michael D Higgins with the  president of SETU, Prof Veronica Campbell, after he received the 2026 Michael Cooley Award earlier on Thursday before making his speech in Trinity College Dublin. Picture: Patrick Browne

Former president Michael D Higgins has warned that “humanity is at stake” in Gaza, and said he describes events in the territory unreservedly as “a genocide”.

In a strident speech at Trinity College Dublin, Mr Higgins described plans outlined by the Donald Trump-inspired board of peace for Gaza as a “land grab”, and said that Ireland should approach its impending presidency of the EU as one of “international significance”.

The former president told a packed auditorium that Ireland should approach its presidency — which Ireland will assume for six months from July 1 — as being one of “sovereign responsibility” to apply the human rights conventions and laws of the EU to the conflict in Gaza.

Of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Gaza, he said: “I use the word 'genocide' unreservedly now."

“The elimination of a people, their culture, their memory, their civilisation."

He said that the potential issue of an economic cost to Ireland for taking a stronger stand on Gaza as being ”quite exaggerated”, and he described a perceived campaign to have Ireland ‘grow up and get serious about its interests’ as “very arrogant”.

“Is there an interest greater than to want to participate in a world that is governed by peace?” he asked.

“There is a concerted effort to say that war is inevitable and that peace cannot be achieved,” Mr Higgins added, with regard to the alleged current overarching policy approach of the EU towards Gaza.

Of Ireland’s presidency, he said: “I think that we need to say is that this is what we stand for — a planet safe for human habitation.

“We must say the wrongs must be ended. Ireland must not be content to be a minority in making its case,” he said. 

“We must say to all the other members of the European Union, where do you stand?” he said, in reference to the EU’s various conventions on human rights.

“As we go into the presidency, let’s do so with generosity,” he said, suggesting that Ireland not do so “with false language”.

“Yes, there are difficulties and conflicts, but ones that are resolved by treating the other person as a fellow human being. It is humanity that is at stake, and this is thinking I very much support,” he added.

The former president was scathing regarding the international coalition known as the Board of Peace brought to realisation by Mr Trump and Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu and what it means for Gaza.

“I like to call a land grab for what it is, and that is what is proposed,” he said.