By: Soham Shah
December 4 2023
No, Ireland has not expelled Israeli ambassador or referred Israel to International Criminal Court
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Post claiming Irish President has expelled Israeli Ambassador and filed a lawsuit in international courts. (Source:X/Modified by Logically Facts)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The woman in the video is Irish opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald, and Ireland has not expelled its Israeli ambassador.
Claim ID 01527f8e
What's the claim?
Posts on social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook have been shared with claims that the president or prime minister of Ireland has expelled the Israeli ambassador and plans to take Israel to the International Criminal Court. The posts contain a video of a woman criticizing Israel's bombing and atrocities in Gaza. One such post was shared with the caption, "Prime Minister of Republic of Ireland is bold enough to send Israeli ambassador home…." (sic) Archive links of such posts can be accessed here, here, here, and here.
Posts claiming Ireland has expelled its Israeli ambassador and filed a lawsuit in international courts. (Source:X, Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, the woman in the video is not the Irish president or prime minister, and the Israeli ambassador for Ireland has not been expelled.
What is the truth?
The woman in the video is Mary Lou McDonald, President of Sinn Féin, the main opposition party in the Irish Parliament, and not the Irish president. She was speaking at the annual party conference of Sinn Féin, a full video of which is available on the party's YouTube channel. The current President of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins, and the prime minister, or Taoiseach, is Leo Varadkar.
(Source: YouTube)
The Independent and The Irish Examiner reported on November 15, 2023, and November 16, 2023, respectively, that while there were motions introduced in the Irish Parliament for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and for taking Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its actions in Gaza, both were defeated.
The Irish Examiner reported that the Irish Government won a vote on two opposition motions on the Israel-Gaza war. A Sinn Féin motion had called for Israel to be referred to the ICC, while a Social Democrats motion had sought to expel the Israeli ambassador, the report added.
Separately, Palestinian Human rights groups have filed lawsuits in the ICC to investigate Israel for apartheid and genocide and have arrest warrants issued against Israeli leadership. The United Nations has said that there is clear evidence that war crimes have been committed in Israel and Gaza.
Bolivia has cut off diplomatic relations with Israel, while others like South Africa and Columbia have withdrawn diplomats or ambassadors over the Israeli bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 15,200 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. This has led to mis/disinformation involving expulsions of Israeli ambassadors. Logically Facts has previously debunked the false news of Colombia expelling the Israeli ambassador.
The verdict
We have marked this claim as false as McDonald is not the president or prime minister of Ireland, and motions to expel the Israeli ambassador and take Israel to the ICC were defeated in the Irish parliament.