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I WAS HEARTENED to open the newspaper last week and read the report of the excellent, hard hitting and brave Amnesty International report on the regime of apartheid that Israel inflicts on the Palestinian people.
I recognised, in Amnesty’s painstakingly forensic work, what I saw myself when I visited; the horrific humiliation of Palestinians at checkpoints, the sprinklers and aqua parks in the settlements while Palestinians had to collect water in canisters to shower, the ripped up olive trees, the harassment of farmers and shepherds, the demolition of homes, and the separate roads for Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
My experiences had reminded me of South African Apartheid, and now here it was, clearly spelt out by an organisation as important as Amnesty International.
At last, I thought, this might propel the Irish government into finally passing Frances Black’s Occupied Territories Bill. But wouldn’t it be great to do this not just in Ireland, but across the European Union? To show, in real terms, that the people of Europe care about upholding International law and defending human rights.
Taking a stand
Then, I heard that more than 100 human rights organisations called the #StopSettlements Coalition have this week launched a European Citizens Initiative – a legal mechanism by which the EU can be compelled to discuss a law – demanding an end to EU trade with illegal settlements in occupied territories.
The coalition includes international organisations such as Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights and Avaaz, while here at home Trócaire, Action Aid, UpLift, ICTU, Christian Aid, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace, and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign are some of those involved.
Everyday people and committed human rights groups are seeking the signatures of at least one million EU citizens to demand that the EU bureaucracy listen to them and act morally. The proposed law would apply to all illegal settlements in territories occupied or annexed by any of the EU’s trade partners, whether that be Russia, Israel, Morocco or any other state.
You don’t have to be an international relations specialist to see that territorial aggression is on the rise and that this threatens international peace, stability and the rule of law. That is why I am strongly of the belief that it’s absolutely essential we create a situation where the EU will no longer reward illegal settlements with trade and profits.
Complicit in oppression
It has been argued that Israel’s illegal settlements in Palestine constitute a war crime, a charge echoed most recently by United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, Michael Lynk, last July. He called on the international community to designate the creation of Israeli settlements as such. The UN has requested that countries not assist them in any manner.
Yet this hasn’t stopped EU states, including Ireland, from trading with them for decades. This trade is a real and serious violation of our obligations under international law not to recognise or assist illegal settlements. Having a law prohibiting such trade would send an unambiguous and much-needed signal that the EU, its members, and its citizens, will defend human rights and international law.
On the other hand, if we don’t pass such a law, this will ensure that the status quo, whereby EU trade contributes to both the economic lifeblood and political legitimacy of illegal settlements, will remain. Worse, it’s been shown that EU trade has actually contributed directly to the expansion of Israel’s settlements.
The EU has been dangerously inconsistent in its respect of the rule of law. Why, for instance, has the bloc – commendably – ceased trading with Crimea after Russian annexation, but – shamefully – failed to do so in the case of Israeli settlements, which the Irish government last year recognised as a form of de facto annexation.
EU – defender of human rights?
The EU finds itself at a crossroads. Is it willing to stand up and show that its engagement with the world will be through a lens of respect of international law and human rights, as its rhetoric claims? Or will it continue its current practice of putting trade and profit ahead of all else?
Sadly it seems that the EU bureaucracy doesn’t even want to talk about this issue; the European Commission at first refused to even register the Citizens Initiative and had to be brought to the European Court of Justice and forced to accept it.
Many years ago the international community – and Ireland in particular – took a principled stand against South African Apartheid; that moral leadership helped bring about historic change there.
Now the European Citizens Initiative gives ordinary people a rare and exciting opportunity to express our views directly and democratically to the bureaucrats in the EU. We the citizens can take the power away from political lobbyists and push for a law that would ensure the EU never again trades with illegal settlements, anywhere, anytime.
One thing is certain. Having only partial respect for international law and human rights is showing no respect at all.
The world is watching. It’s the European Commission’s move, and I encourage everyone who cares about the rule of law to take two minutes to sign the petition and demand the right decision.
Mike Murphy is a broadcaster and former RTÉ presenter.
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The Elite in this country are not going to take their foot off the ordinary persons neck until we get up off our knees
Well said!
We have some way to go before we even get to our knees.
The most likely scenario is stagflation (low growth, high inflation) for the rest of this decade, and even beyond.
That will mean a few bank bail-ins, such as in Cyprus, so be very careful with your savings, if you have any.
Oh, and an austerity budget each year too.
Look out below.
2014? We’re barely surviving in 2013, another year of austerity will totally sink the country!
I really don’t think people realise that austerity is permanent. Even if we reach a stage when we can balance our incomings and outgoings, every spare cent will be used to pay rich people’s gambling debts for generations. There seems to be a fallacy that when the bailout ends our trouble will be over. The day our mighty government legalised wealthy people’s gambling debts ensured permanent austerity for ordinary people.
Lately I’m just feeling compelled to leave this link in places like this:
http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.ie/2013/07/the-emperor-has-new-clothes.html
We export or starve, its that simple. Creating parasite jobs such as water meter installers and readers is a cop out way of governing the nation and only business large and small have ever created real jobs so get the obstacles such as petty EUSSR rules out of the way and let them get on with it.
“We export or starve, its that simple.” Nonsense. Ireland produces far more food than it consumes.
George,
The potato famine was a long time ago. We produce an excess of food which we export. In the event of Irish people starving as Morticia seems to think is imminent, that food supply would be retained in the country or the government would quickly find themselves removed from power, probably violently.
Morticia also doesn’t seem to accept the role of government in creating jobs. The private sector will never provide an adequate supply of sustainable jobs for the people. How could they when the objective of private enterprise is to produce as few jobs as possible and pay them as little as possible in order to maximize profit.
The necessity of the state intervening to plug the massive gaps in the free market system and create employment for its people was well understood from the 1930s onwards. Post WW II (near) full employment was the norm in the U.S, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada etc. which rarely had unemployment higher than 2% and where prosperity was far more equally shared. The government employed millions of it’s own citizens in these countries and did so with newly created money from their own central banks where necessary.
Since the 1980s however, self serving neo liberal economics has gained world wide traction which sees an elite get ever richer while they peddle myths to the rest of the population such as “We must balance the books” , “Austerity is the only alternative”, “Banks are the engines of growth”, “ Don’t restrict the markets with regulation”, “ only business large and small have ever created real jobs “ etc etc.
Obviously the use of a ‘figure of speech’ can be confusing for some, but where does all the magic money to fund the generosity of our various govenrments come from ? Do we have a big collection box somewhere for donations or do we sell stuff abroad to bring in the few bob.
Morticia, apologies if I read too much into an off the cuff figure of speech. We can export goods to generate money that is true. Real sovereign countries can also create their own currency to fund a budget deficit if the so wish. The U.S does not need to borrow dollars in the financial markets. It can simply create them by pressing keys on a computer in the Federal reserve. Ireland handed that power over to the ECB when we joined the Euro and are paying massively for that mistake now. The ECB has created over a trillion euros in that’s past few years and distributed it to the European banks at extremely low interest. Ireland has been forced to massively hike our taxes and shred our social systems to get the funding at a much higher which the ECB can create on a whim. This is neo liberal economics in a action.
“neo-liberal economics” what exactly does that mean????
the UK and US employed the theory of “Quantitive Easing”, the US more than the UK, especially considering all their austerity cuts in comparison with the US.
The ECB should do so aswell without the restraints!
Each job is worth 20 k, looking at the jobseekers app ,its hard to see a job paying more than 18k..that includes some trades ie.welding/painters/panelbeaters etc..If the race to the bottom continues the country will never recover.
Too many employers taking advantage..if you cant pay a living wage you shouldnt be in business.
How is someone going to be able to spend on minimun rate..as a poster said on another thread recently there are over two million medical cards in issue..so apart from the approx 350,000 on the register there are over 1,750.000 people who cant afford basic healthcare from their wages/salaries.
If thats not a damning indictment on a country..what is?
The race to the bottom benefits no one.
I hear what you say but I absolutely despise your attitude!
forgive me if I’m wrong but the way I interpreted your last comment was “work pay = x”, “welfare et al = x + 1″, why should I get out of bed?!??
please tell me I’m wrong?!?
wrong end of the stick Pat.Can you explain to me how having almost 2 1/2 million people dependent on welfare to some extent is benefitting the country.Only people the minimun wage benefits is the employer, who is effectively subsidising their wage bill via FIS etc
I know from experience that the working poor who have allmost no spending power after paying the essentials are paying the price.!
If you have no discretionary spending because of low wages/high taxes..(relatively) and stealth taxes..how can you lift the local economy?
Everyone cant earn 50k+but surely a worker is entitled to a living wage in one of the most expensive countries in Europe!
I am sure IBEC will have a counter agreement soon. “Austerity” call it by the correct name a Recessionist policy
“argument” not agreement.
“indirect taxation or other income streams instead” In other words introduce further regressive taxes that screw the workers, poor and unemployed and don’t tax the incomes of the rich!
A suggestion IEA and Noonan make 2013 the last budget of austerity otherwise there will be no Ireland to rescue.
Hopefully someone from the business communirty can answer a question relevant to this item. How much money do we need in circulation to create a job? I was told by a person [expert in such matters] that each £100,000 in circulation supported a real job but that was in c1984, is there a more recent figure? With so many ‘jobs’ piggy-backing on manufacturing it would be nice to figure out where our priorities lie.
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