By Susan Gately - 13 July, 2018
The Catholic aid agency Trócaire has said that Ireland is “making history” through legislation that was initiated in Seanad Éireann earlier this week prohibiting the import or sale of goods and services produced in occupied territories around the world, including illegal Israeli settlements.
The Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, introduced by independent senator Frances Black, passed by 25 votes to 20 on Wednesday, with Fine Gael the only party voting against the measure. It will now continue its passage through the Dáil. The legislation would prohibit trade between Ireland and the illegal settlements.
Christian Aid Ireland, Sadaka (the Irish Palestinian Alliance) and the Global Legal Action Network also backed the bill and urged senators to support it. Its passing into law would make Ireland the first country to vote for a trade ban with settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Describing the bill as a “powerful declaration in support of human rights in Palestine”, Executive Director of Trócaire, Éamon Meehan, said that by “differentiating between Israel and the illegal settlements constructed on Palestinian land” the legislation put “human rights at the heart of Irish trade”, showing the country’s opposition to “ongoing land grabs by Israel in the West Bank”.
Settlements are built on land stolen from Palestinian families, who often look on as their homes and land are bulldozed to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, continued Mr Meehan. “It is immoral for Ireland, or any other country, to continue to trade with companies established on these illegal settlements. Ireland has always been a vocal critic of the illegal settlement project. It is now time to turn words into action by banning trade with the settlements.”
The Israeli Embassy in Ireland was highly critical of the bill. “The absurdity in the Seanad Éireann initiative is that it will harm the livelihoods of many Palestinians who work in the Israeli industrial zones affected by the boycott,” it said in a statement. Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, Deputy Israeli Ambassador, Orli Weitzman, said the “absurdity of the situation was that 31,000 Palestinians were working in Israeli companies in the Westbank” and this legislation had “the potential to hurt them”.
However, speaking on the same programme, Senator Frances Black said they were “following the line of the United Nations, the European Union and the International Court of Justice: if we are convinced that goods are produced which are the result of war crimes, we should not be trading with them”.
A spokeswoman for Christian Aid Ireland said that a “viable and lasting peace in the region has to be grounded in international law and these settlements are a clear violation of international law and may even constitute war crimes under the Geneva conventions”.
Senator Black told Drivetime that the value of goods being traded with the settlements was small – about €1 million per year – so the measure would not cost Irish jobs. But she insisted that the impact of the legislation would be “phenomenal, especially for the Palestinian people. It is the first legislation of its kind in the European Union. The world is watching and it is huge for the Palestinian people and historic for them.”
According to the Irish Palestinian Alliance, Sadaka, 14 local councils in Ireland (most of them on the west coast of the country), already support a ban on the import of goods from Israeli settlements. It has appealed to the public to get other local councils on board to back the initiative.
