4 hours ago
8
In November, three activists from Palestine Action Eire crashed a modified van through a barrier at Shannon Airport, drove onto the runway towards a United States military aircraft and sprayed green paint on a parked Boeing 737-700.
The action was in protest against what they saw as Ireland’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza through the US military’s continued use of Shannon Airport. At the time, Israel’s onslaught had killed more than 69,000 Palestinians.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Global pressure does little to stop Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies
- list 2 of 4Campaign to boycott Israel looks to future after Gaza ‘ceasefire’
- list 3 of 4At odds with Europe: Why is Spain saying ‘no’ to US-Israeli war on Iran?
- list 4 of 4Ireland’s Micheal Martin and Trump in awkward St Patrick’s Day exchange
According to data collected by the military plane tracker Shannonwarport, at least 1,300 US military and military-contracted civilian aircraft have flown within 60km (37 miles) of Shannon Airport since January 2024, including at least 45 flights that travelled to or from Israel.
“I took part in the action out of a general frustration with the Irish establishment and society,” activist Conan Kavanagh told Al Jazeera.
After spending two days in Limerick Prison on remand, he paid 10,000 euros ($11,500) in bail money. The three activists awaiting trial have been charged with criminal damage and interfering with the “operation, management or safety of an airport”.
“For a country that prides itself on a shared history of colonialism and resistance, I think we’re incredibly limited in how we express support for the Palestinian people,” Kavanagh said. “A lot of Palestinian activism in Ireland is centred around marches, speeches and rallies, which while good needs to be escalated upon with more actively disruptive protests if we hope to actually force the hands of the state.”
Aine Ni Threinir, another of the activists, believes protesting against the US military’s use of the airport in western Ireland “should be something that we all mobilise strongly around”.
“That hasn’t happened,” she told Al Jazeera. “But there are people, myself included and the 11 others in the past two years who have done actions at Shannon, who are now being criminalised and dragged through the courts by the Irish state. So we [Irish people] absolutely could do more, but it has come at a price for those of us who have taken these actions.”
Ireland’s support for Palestine has historic roots. Among its recent actions are recognising the state of Palestine in May 2024, supporting South Africa in its genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, and welcoming dozens of students and medical evacuees from Gaza.
But critics argued that there are still some areas where it could enact meaningful policy to limit Israeli aggressions – such as the use of its airspace.
Protesters hold regular demonstrations at Shannon Airport to call on the Irish government to inspect US military and military-contracted planes for weapons destined for Israel.
In a United Nations report published in October, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territory, listed Ireland among the countries that permitted weapons transfers through ports and airports, indicating “an intent to facilitate Israeli crimes”. In an interview with the Irish broadcaster RTE, she urged Ireland to stop the transit of weapons.
In 2024, the Department of Transport approved 1,354 applications for civil aircraft or Irish-registered aircraft to carry military weapons or ammunition through Ireland, representing a 14 percent increase over 2023, The Irish Times reported in April. Only two applications were refused in 2024.
During an interview in April with the Irish radio station Newstalk, Alice Mary Higgins, a member of the Irish Seanad, or Senate, said: “While the full records of all the flights are not available, it is known that the largest number of exemptions have been sought by Germany and the United States.”
Data gathered by Shannonwatch, which tracks US military stopovers, confirm that most aircraft passing through are US military and military-contracted with flights by Germany’s Luftwaffe also appearing in its logs.
Officials maintained that they do not routinely inspect foreign military aircraft landing at the airport and no exemptions have been granted for civilian aircraft to carry munitions bound for Israel.
After the US and Israel attacked Iran, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Shannon was not being used to assist that war. However, he said while there was not “strong evidence” that US military weapons were being transported, it was difficult to “intervene” or “investigate” if there were any “transgressions” of rules.
Ireland ‘looking the other way’
Shannon Airport has been a key US military refuelling and transit point in Europe for more than two decades.
During the Iraq War, more than two million US soldiers passed through the airport in western Ireland, fuelling controversy and allegations that the site facilitated the transport of weapons and detainees, John O’Brennan, director of Maynooth University’s Centre for European and Eurasian Studies, told Al Jazeera.
While most European Union countries facilitate weapon transfers for allies through NATO or EU security frameworks, Ireland’s official policy is to not allow the transit of weapons through its airspace to maintain its traditional military neutrality.
Under Irish law, all civil aircraft carrying weapons or ammunition must apply for exemptions from the Department of Transport before landing at Irish airports or travelling through Irish airspace.
Irish-registered aircraft carrying munitions anywhere in the world must also seek permission. Foreign military aircraft are only authorised to land or fly through Ireland by the Department of Foreign Affairs on the condition they are not carrying weapons.
While Irish authorities said no prisoners during the Iraq War were transported through the airport, human rights groups such as Amnesty International Ireland said the country’s failure to actively inspect planes meant it had violated its human rights obligations.
The full extent of what passed through Shannon was never established “as the government shut down all investigations”, O’Brennan said.
O’Brennan said the government’s strategy of “looking the other way” has resulted in revelations that weapons have transited illegally.
The Irish investigative site The Ditch reported in August 2024 that Israeli-Belgian Challenge Airlines had illegally transited ammunition and military explosives bound for Israel through Irish airspace, based on documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests by the Belgian antiwar NGO Vredesactie.
After this report, the Department of Transport launched a probe that found nine unauthorised flights had carried munitions through Irish airspace destined for Israel since October 2023.
Opposition parties condemned the findings, accusing the government of “turning a blind eye” and failing to uphold international law and Ireland’s policy of military neutrality.
Eoghan McNeill, an editor at The Ditch, told Al Jazeera that these unauthorised flights were operated by a mix of military contractors and commercial carriers, including Israel’s national airline El Al, US carriers FedEx Express and Omni Air International, and Germany’s national airline Lufthansa. It reported that Challenge Airlines alone made 21 flights carrying weapons to Israel through Irish airspace from October 2023 to January 2025.
The Irish government said the Department of Transport is continuing to examine reports of alleged nonexempted flights. It has also pledged to introduce new laws to enable random physical inspections of aircraft and warned the concerned airlines against carrying Israeli munitions through Irish airspace without authorisation.
In October, Ireland granted an exemption for a US military-chartered Omni Air International flight to carry munitions to the Israeli military’s Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel. This marked the first time since 2006 that the Irish government had acknowledged authorising an Israel-bound weapons flight to fly through Shannon Airport, The Ditch reported.
At the time of publication, neither the Irish prime minister’s office nor the Department of Transport had responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
O’Brennan said Ireland is cautious about provoking Washington due to its economic ties with the US, citing the issues around Shannon and a long-debated Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban trade with Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. The legislation is yet to pass despite strong parliamentary support.
Last month, Shannon Airport faced renewed criticism after The Guardian reported that several Palestinians arrested in the US were deported to the occupied West Bank on flights chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that refuelled at the airport.
