Palestinian Museum Looks to Open new Branch in Ex-Israel Embassy in Dublin

After Israel announced the closure of its embassy in Dublin, the Palestine Museum US has expressed interest in leasing the space to establish a new branch.

Headquartered in Connecticut since its launch in April 2018, the Palestine Museum US is dedicated to sharing the Palestinian narrative with a global audience and has held exhibitions across Europe. Its most recent showcase, ‘Art Under Fire’, was displayed at P21 Gallery in London this year.

Faisel Saleh, a Palestinian-American businessman and founder of the Palestine Museum US, has expressed interest in transforming the former Israeli embassy in Dublin into a Palestinian museum, calling it “a political statement.”

“We’re just making inquiries at this point. We thought it’d be a good idea because we’d been looking for places to have a permanent space, and it’d be good to have a presence in Ireland,” Saleh explained. He noted that a permanent location would streamline operations and allow for regular exhibitions, but financial viability remains a consideration.

He said, “It’s a lot more efficient if you had a permanent space. But it would also have to make sense financially for us. We are still waiting to get some information. If it happened, we would open it as a museum with permanent exhibitions.”

The decision to close the Israeli embassy in Dublin has highlighted Tel Aviv’s increasing international isolation over the Gaza war in which it has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than 70 per cent women and children, and displaced almost all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents.

Israel’s foreign minister yesterday accused Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, of anti-Semitism as he defended Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin over Ireland’s policies, Reuters reports.

Harris has rejected Israel’s criticism and called the decision to close the embassy deeply regrettable and said Ireland would always stand up for human rights and international law.

Palestine Museum US’s Saleh said of the closure: “Good riddance. Who wants to have the presence of a genocidal state in their country? It’s horrific what they’re doing, and Ireland is one of the very few countries really supporting the Palestinian people.”

“We’re very thankful to the Irish people for the stance they’re taking, and when we put the exhibit on in Bantry, we received tremendous support. It was beyond our expectations,” he said.

“There are a lot of forces trying to erase our story, but Ireland is on the other side of that and we’re very grateful for that.”

Last week Ireland announced that it will formally join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel and will be asking the ICJ to “broaden its interpretation” of what constitutes genocide so that besieging a nation is covered under the terms of the convention.

Israel faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justcice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Isralei Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his previous Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes as a result of their conduct in Gaza.