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FIANNA FÁIL LEADER Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader are among the 130 Irish politicians who have signed a letter opposing the annexation of occupied West Bank territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in July he will start the process extending Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank containing Jewish settlements.
Development agencies Trócaire and Christian Aid released the letter signed by the Irish elected representatives, who are among over 1,000 European parliamentarians who also co-signed the correspondence.
The letter calls on Europe to “take the lead in bringing international actors together to prevent annexation and to safeguard the prospects of the two-state solution and a just resolution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The plan to annex settlements is in line with US President Donald Trump’s contentious so-called ‘peace’ plan, which has been dismissed by Palestinian leaders.
In addition to Martin and McDonald, signatories include Labour party leader Alan Kelly, Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the Social Democrats, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett and Green Party TDs Patrick Costello and Neasa Hourigan.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Labour’s Brendan Howlin said Ireland should be a “moral leaders” when it comes to this matter pushing this agenda, and should use our new seat on the UN Security Council to highlight the opposition to such actions by Israel.
The Sinn Féin leader said the Irish government should take a “strong stance now against the annexation”.
“This must stop,” she said, adding that Ireland’s history in conflict resolution puts us in a unique position to speak out against it.
Dropping of the Occupied Territories Bill
McDonald also raised the issue of the Occupied Territories Bill being dropped from the programme for government document.
The Bill, which was brought to the Oireachtas by independent senator Frances Black, seeks to prevent Ireland from trading in goods and services imported from Israeli-occupied territories.
Although it does not mention Israel or Palestine specifically, it aims to prohibit “the import and sales of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories”.
The Bill passed in the Seanad in December 2018 despite government opposition, before passing second stage in the Dáil in January 2019.
Fine Gael and Tánaiste Simon Coveney have repeatedly outlined their opposition to the Bill.
During the negotiations, the Green Party pushed to have the Bill included in the programme for government document.
However, Fine Gael resisted. When the Green Party’s Neasa Hourigan was asked last week what happened to the Bill, she said “Simon Coveney happened”.
McDonald said that the removal of the Bill from the programme for government was a “copping out” of this government and Fine Gael.
The decision to drop the Occupied Territories Bill was both cynical and wrong and any incoming government must take action now to demonstrate solidarity” with those “living under the cruel and illegal occupation”.
Speaking about Coveney’s involvement in removing the Bill from the document, McDonald said it was an “indictment of Fine Gael policy when it comes to the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Solidarity–People Before Profit Gino Kenny asked what Ireland was going to do to take a stand, stating that he had serious concern in relation to lobbying by the Israeli ambassador to Ireland.
Concerns of the possible closure of the Israeli embassy due to members of government voting in favour of the Bill were previously described as “unrealistic”.
A number of other legal minds, including the former Attorney General Michael McDowell have said the Bill does not contravene European trade law.
Writing an opinion piece for this website, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Ophir Kariv, called on the government to reject the Bill stating that it is a boycott on Israeli goods produced in the West Bank.
American lobby groups and representatives from two US states were among those who urged the government to vote down the Occupied Territories Bill last year.
Documents released to TheJournal.ie under the Freedom of Information Act revealed how international groups sought to influence the passage of the Bill through both Houses of the Oireachtas.
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If the party members of FF and the Greens feel strongly enough about this then they need to vote against the PFG. If they vote for the PFG then they do so knowing this Bill is not part of it and can’t complain about it afterwards.
@The next small thing: The exclusion from the PfG need not prevent it going to a vote in the Dáil – it could be tabled by any TD and put to a vote of conscience / no whip as is often the case on contentious or ‘social / personal’ issues… if only some in FG leadership opposed it’s inclusion, and pretty much everyone else has publicly backed it then can see it passing later this year, likely with some FG votes for it too.
Shameful. When did Ireland stop caring about injustice?
@Johnny 5: that’s easy.
When the DPP let the Statute on limitations run out after the findings of the Mahon tribunal.
@Johnny 5: many worse situations going on in the world. Particularly in Africa which gets no attention. We are so focused on the fashion of Israel bashing where all we do is serve to polarise the the situation with our infantile “Jews bad/Arabs good” positioning.
@Gary Sheahan:
I’m sure the Palestinians would disagree with you. Go to Hebron and see if you still think it’s Israel bashing.
@Wreck Tangle: lived in the region for over 20 years. Real evil on both sides. Real decency on both sides. In Ireland we only take one side. It’s polarising. Does not help. It needs equal condemnation.
@Wreck Tangle: Hebron is only “occupied” now because the Jews who lived there were massacred in the Hebron massacre of 1929. Suddenly, the fact Jews returned to the city they were pogrommed out of means they are occupying it.
And let’s remember that Palestine voted against a motion criticising the Uinghur internment camps. It’s infantile to be obsessed with one dispute, and completely mute on human rights abuses in other countries.
@Gary Sheahan: hear hear.
@Wreck Tangle: the situation is Hebron is bad as are the antics of settlers in certain parts of the west bank. However so is the celebration of suicide bombers as matyrs and the use of EU aid money to compensate their families, as is the firing of rockets by Hamas aimed at civilian targets in Israel etc.
THE FG BOTS AND THEIR DAIL BUDDIES WILL SELL THIS COUNTRY DOWN THE DRAIN WITH THEIR NEOLIBERAL AGENDA
@Oliver Walker: caps lock is on buddy.
THE RIGHT-WING ESTABLISHMENT AND MEHOLE MARTIN HAVE LONG FORGOTTEN WHAT THEIR CORE VALUES ARE. THEY DON’T HAVE VALUES ANYMORE. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR VIRTUE SIGNALLING.
This does not bode well for our position on the UNSC if we can be easily bullied and threatened by the US and Israel over this issue.
Am I missing something here or is there only one country in the world that has forcefully occupied another territory!
@Thomas Sheridan: you’re missing something.
@Thomas Sheridan: Cyprus, Crimea, Gibraltar….
@Malachy: Ireland
I’m ashamed to say that Simon Coveney is one of my constituency TDs
@Joe Healy: Well we will see what your other constituency TD, Ml Martin, will do about if he is elected Taoiseach this weekend.
Disgusting external forces lobbying / interfering with an outgoing Irish Government in which the majority of elected signees wish for it to be passed. Reminds me of the Swamp in the WH. Democracy in full swing. Not.
Two seperate issues here. The international community should make clear that annexation of parts of the west bank will not be tolerated. The occupied territories bill is a different matter, unfortunately there is a lot of ignorance on this issue. It has long been ackowledged by both parties and the international community that in any final status agreement the major settlement blocks located near the green line (in which the vast majority of settlers live on about 2% of the west bank territory) would be annexed by Israel in return for land swaps- this land is vital to Israel from a security point of view, hence the settlements being located there. Both sides agreed to this in previous agreements. Unilateral withdrawal from that territory by Israel without an agreement would be massively distabilising to the area. A final staus agreement is needed. Now, the palastinian side has not been willing to re-enter negotiations on a final status agreement, despite repeated offers by the current Israeli government. I don’t think netanyahu is the one to acheive peace on the Israeli side but still neither is Abbass and nothing will happen without negotiations. Thats why the international community is against sanctions, because most of them – our politicians excluded – are sopisticated enough to realise that these issues are complex and nuanced not a simple good evil binary as they would have ua think.
@Damon16: The land is not vital for Israel’s security. Palestinians want to live normal lives in peace. They don’t need a buffer, they don’t need a wall. If Israel engaged the Palestinians as equals, stopped stealing their land, stopped besieging their cities, stopped bulldozing their houses, allowed them to travel, there would be no security problem. Israel does this because it can. Just like South Africa in the 80s, this requires external pressure for change, hence the OT bill.
Another country the British destroyed!
Ireland must stand in opposition to annexation of territories by Israel. Its attempts to deny Palestinian self determination is a breach of international law.
God forgive the USA
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