Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Defence, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD,\u00a0called on the Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, to not sign any new contracts with Israeli military firms when he visits the region this weekend. He said Ireland needs to distance its\u00a0Defence Forces as far away as possible from Israel\u2019s military infrastructure<\/p>\n
In a response to a PQ tabled by Deputy Crowe, Minister Coveney had stated: \u201cI intend to travel to the Middle East (Lebanon and Israel) between 4 and 7 December, with the primary purpose of visiting the Irish troops serving with UN missions in the region \u2013 UNIFIL, UNDOF and UNTSO.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome the visit of Minister Coveney to Irish troops who are working on UN peacekeeping missions in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in, in the D\u00e1il, opposed the sending of Irish troops to the UNDOF mission to the Golan Heights, due to mounting security and safety concerns, and the EU\u2019s decision to lift an embargo on member states sending weapons to militant groups in Syria.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever as long as Irish troops\u00a0are stationed\u00a0there, their safety and wellbeing is our primary concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am conscious that the Minister will see\u00a0 their actual living conditions and experience first-hand the ground conditions where they are operating\u00a0.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
However Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring his visit to Israel I am calling on the Minister to not sign any new contracts with Israeli military companies and calling on\u00a0him to publically confirm his position on possible future military contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cFormer Minister Alan Shatter,\u00a0in May of this year, stated that the value of military equipment acquired or being acquired from Israeli companies since March 2011 is the region of \u20ac2.9 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Sunday Tribune article from January 2010 suggested that between 2004 and 2009 the Department of Defence spent almost \u20ac14 million on military equipment made by Israeli manufacturers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion Ireland should not be buying any military hardware off Israel and it should be distancing itself from Israel\u2019s military industrial complex and military aggression, which is responsible for war crimes, \u00a0human rights abuses, and continued violations of international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am also extremely\u00a0disappointed that Minister Coveney is not planning to visit Palestine or meet any Palestinian leaders, especially considering he is the first Government Minister to visit the region since the horrific bombardment\u00a0of\u00a0Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent months have also seen the ratcheting up and rise of tension around sensitive religious sites in Occupied East Jerusalem and the continued illegal land grabbing of Palestinian land.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister could have added one day to schedule and visited Palestine to meet with Palestinian leaders. He could have visited Gaza and seen with his own eyes, Irish Aid and EU Aid supported projects and how they have been impacted by Israel\u2019s military latest military adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bad precedent to set and I will be raising it with the Minister on his return.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Defence, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD,\u00a0called on the Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, to not sign any new contracts with Israeli military firms when he visits the region this weekend. He said Ireland needs to distance its\u00a0Defence Forces as far away as possible from Israel\u2019s military infrastructure In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,50,123,48,49,146,47,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defence","category-human-rights","category-international-law","category-israel","category-israeli-settlements","category-minister-for-defence","category-palestine","category-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1989,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}