San Francisco Frontiers - Ireland's Gaza stance spills from Eurovision into football

Ireland face Israel in football's Nations League in Hungary on Sunday before a designated Irish "home" game in Serbia on October 4, amid protests and calls for a boycott over Israel's war in Gaza.

Sunday's match comes days after national broadcaster RTE confirmed Ireland would again boycott the Eurovision Song Contest next year because of Israel's participation.

But contractual obligations mean it must show the football matches.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has, meanwhile, declined its ticket allocation for Irish supporters for Sunday's fixture.

The game is being staged in Debrecen, Hungary, because Israel cannot currently host international matches, while the reverse fixture was shifted from Dublin to Backa Topola, Serbia, and will be played behind closed doors.

"It is highly unusual for a state broadcaster to show a major international match while stripping away punditry" and the other usual elements, said Neil O'Boyle, an associate professor at Dublin City University specialising in sport and media.

RTE faced "a unique dilemma", he told AFP, between its contractual obligations and "intense pushback from the Irish public and some of its own staff".

"The 'silent' broadcast is intended as a kind of moral compromise," he said.

- 'Moral compromise' -

Ireland has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, with sympathy often linked to the country's own history of British rule.

Research published this year by political scientist Liam Kneafsey and colleague Miceal Canavan found Ireland a clear outlier in western Europe.

Their study, based on a representative survey conducted in late 2023, found 53 percent of Irish adults sympathised more with Palestinians and 11 percent with Israel, compared with around 27 percent pro-Palestinian sympathy in the next-highest western European country.

"Ireland's history of colonisation, partition and displacement gives people a ready-made template for understanding a distant and complex conflict," Kneafsey told AFP.

Such attitudes were "rooted in history and identity, not just a reaction to headlines", he added.

Dublin formally recognised a Palestinian state in 2024 alongside Spain and Norway, and has repeatedly criticised Israel's conduct in Gaza.

More than 160 Irish sportspeople have signed a letter urging the national team to boycott the football games, while protests have targeted the FAI and players.

Manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has acknowledged players are uncomfortable about the fixtures, saying: "We're not playing with genocide. We're playing against genocide."

Israel's football federation accused him of "stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy", remarks Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheal Martin on Tuesday called "unacceptable".

- 'Outrage' -

Amnesty International Ireland's executive director, Stephen Bowen, said UEFA should have suspended Israel, arguing that Israeli clubs operating in occupied Palestinian territory breached football's rules.

"It shocks the conscience that Ireland has to play these fixtures," he told AFP.

"Upset and outrage here in Ireland at these matches is palpable."

But former Irish justice minister Alan Shatter strongly rejected the boycott campaign.

"It's a scandal that a group of obsessed political activists have created a situation where our home game is now taking place behind closed doors in Serbia," he told AFP.

Shatter said the FAI should have staged the fixture in Dublin with police protection and accused campaigners of placing players under unacceptable pressure.

The FAI itself requested last year that UEFA suspend Israel but received insufficient support from European football's governing body.

It says refusing to play could bring sporting and financial sanctions.

Israel strongly rejects allegations that its conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide.

It launched war on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Its bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,900 people there, according to the occupied Palestinian territory's health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

K.Torres--SFF