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TÁNAISTE SIMON COVENEY has said Ireland strongly supports the EU’s position of condemning Israel’s policy of building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The EU issued a statement on the matter just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington no longer considers them to be illegal.
“The European Union’s position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law,” said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
The Israeli settlement policy “erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace,” she added.
“The EU calls on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power.”
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal, based in part on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids occupying powers from transferring parts of their own civilian population to an occupied territory.
In a tweet last night, Coveney said: “Ireland strongly continues to support the agreed EU position on Israeli settlement policy. Expansion of settlements in occupied territory is illegal under international law.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the country’s change in position earlier yesterday, saying the US would underturn a decades-long position that settlements in the occupied West Bank violate international law.
That statement puts the US at odds with the EU and virtually all countries and UN Security Council resolutions.
“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees… [that the] establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law,” Pompeo said.
“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” he said in the draft.
“The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”
Until now, US policy was based on a legal opinion issued by the State Department in 1978, which said that establishing of settlements in the Palestinian territories went against international law.
Pompeo’s statement follows previous moves by the US administration that have weakened Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood, including Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US Embassy there.
And although the decision is largely symbolic, it could give a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival after he was unable to form a coalition government following recent elections.
It could also spell further trouble for the administration’s oft-promised peace plan, which is unlikely to gather much international support by endorsing a position contrary to the global consensus.
Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in occupied Palestinian territories which are claimed by the latter for their state.
Israel has never annexed the West Bank, even as it has dotted the territory with scores of settlements and tiny settlement outposts.
With reporting by Associated Press and - © AFP 2019
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The attitude of the Government is appalling. Swing low sweet chariot…
@Me Darlin’ Dublin: They want to know what everyone does but they don’t want anyone to know what they do as in brown envelopes, lobbying and whos pals of whom…
@Me Darlin’ Dublin: just get rid of the deluded Regina Doherty, save a fortune, clueless
So the tax payer picks up the tab for the legal fees for all sides of this case… sure you might as well let it run for a few years so… no rush.
@Ciaran Adamson: After the next election anyway if not before Xmas?
Something has not surfaced yet that FFG are determined to bury..
If FF were a separate party , they would have pulled these yokes out a long time ago. Fact is FFG are one and all in it together and we accept it not only but endorse it at the polls…
Pay for your food Leo.
What is in the full Report about the PUBLIC Services Card that the PUBLIC not allowed to see? Government had a draft of this Report noting concerns since 2018 so had sufficient time to respond!
Is the plan to delay releasing Report until after a General Election?
So expert state body uses powers against state and state dept and jumped up minister’s and head civil servants know better!!! Sounds about right! The state of it! Stop trying to better brexit for ridiculousness!
These people must be removed from office ASAP
@@mdmak33: Have you got a method for that, just joking as you know the flock here, they’re all sheep?
On the one hand it’s seems stupid to be required to have a card to access stuff you could already access without a card. If they want to introduce a National Identity card, they should do that, and stop the subterfuge. The collection of stat and the need to prove negatives is making everything a pain in the arse. The underlying motivation seems to be that everyone is trying to commit fraud, launder money and or cheat and must prove in ever increasing circles of hell who they are, where they live and whether they really are who they say they are when they want to pay a bill for example. Apparently there are loads of people pretending to be me and trying to pay my ESB bill, or something.
On the other hand I am sick of data protection, which is causing problems insisting on protecting innocuous information for ridiculous reasons that have to do with a conflation of ideology and an apparent belief that all electronic information is somehow useful to fraudsters and charlatans because data in and of itself has a value.
I wonder would the old phone book be outlawed under the Data Commission?
No joined up thinking or common sense appears on either side.
@Gerard Carthy: I get you Gezza, I really do, now if I could just have your mother’s maiden name please and I’ll get that bill paid for you! And it was Glanmire you went to school and blue still your favourite colour. Good man.
It’s too big to stop, the cost goes beyond 60 million, it includes the integration cost of each new service by each department i.e. passport that must now stop. This is the new p-powers. It will come in over 100 million.
I look forward to seeing these parasites getting the Labour treatment and consigned to where they belong…
The bin of history.
Even their trolls,shills & hacks want f all to do with them.
Boom!
It’s sad that you delete perfectly valid comments. It would be understandable if it were lies, or foul-mouthed. Sad state of affairs in this country; if our journalists actually critiqued our government then posters wouldn’t have to.
I hope she goes to town on them
Never got one but I’m still working and contribute my tax so what’s the importance of them? Not like the system is gonna be wiped! I like old fashioned keep your Pps number to yourself! Stops false passports etc
Glasnost and Perestroika! An initiative of the government of Ireland!
What’s this “sensitive information” they’ve got on the PSC? I’ve asked. But nobody seems to know. And the reason they don’t know is – there isn’t any. Seems everyone here thinks an unelected bureaucrat should be allowed to order a democratically elected government around!
@Paddy Murray: well said!
@Paddy Murray: What “democratically elected government”? FG was in a coalition gov. with the Lab party in 2011. In GE 2016 Lab got wiped out and FG lost 26 seats. If ever two parties lost any mandate to govern that was it. Yet here we are 2019 and FG are in power, a minority government propped up by a secret backroom deal with a party FF who are duty bound to oppose and hold the FG minority government to account.
Both parties have thumbed their noses at democracy and accountability. Engaged in forcing policies they have no mandate for.
Given the lies FG have told, the Corporate friendly policies they force on the people, the numerous scandals in health, the Gardai, the Moriarity findings, homelessness, housing, vulture funds, cuckoo funds, water,etc. the country is being ruled by a Plutocratic Dictatorship were rule of law means nothing.
All that stands between you and a Fascist Dictatorship is that “unelected bureucrat.
@Paddy Murray: You don’t like it when government is held to account? Interesting!
About time someone started to stand up to this Government.
I wish they would change that picture. Fed up of looking at her everyday
D’ya know what’s be GAS craic altogether? A statement from our Minister for Data Protection Pat Breen on where he sits with all of this – will he be backing his colleague Regina Doherty and the government on this challenge, or the DPC defending the rights of us citizens?
I don’t understand all the furore over this. The point of the card is that your proof of address, PPSN, proof of identity etc are all in one place, so you don’t have to go rooting around for various documents. Which can actually be a nightmare now, as most bills etc are electronic, with no hard copy. Seems very useful to me. Maybe I’ve misunderstood it, feel free to correct me.
As regards our data, we’ve all handed over our data to FB and Twitter so we can come on here for a moan. They’re using it to send us dodgy ads and influence elections and referenda. At least the government can use it to adjust public services to maximize their impact. And if they try to influence elections and referenda, hopefully they have our best interests at heart. Cambridge Analytica et al definitely don’t.
@Daniel Lehane: you are incredibly naive if you think this government is going to use your personal, sensitive information for your benefit. Take the cost, add the cost of the investigation, now of the appeal and eventually the fine that will come with it. Definitely for your benefit…
It doesn’t matter if it’s the Irish gov, Facebook, google or yer man down the road that is risking your info… if you want to give all your personal information feel free but don’t lump us all in with you. Some of us actually hold privacy in high regard.
@Artugal: You are incredibly cynical if you think the government is out to get you. And incredibly naïve if you think they don’t already have it. You’ve replied to my comment on social media, they know an awful lot about you, fake profile or not. The investigation and what follows is a necessary process to clear up the new GDPR laws. They haven’t been tested yet. Privacy was the price we paid for the internet. If it is of such concern to you, and everyone else that I didn’t lump anywhere, you should consider not using it. Or the bank. Or anywhere else you have to sign your name.
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