Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Diaspora, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on the government to be more forceful and vocal on illegal Israeli settlements, and accused them of becoming more anodyne on the issue during its EU Presidency.<\/p>\n
Crowe was speaking after he received a reply to a Parliamentary Question he received from the T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, asking whether he would introduce formal governmental advice to discourage Irish businesses from purchasing goods from illegal Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are on-going discussions at EU level to introduce specific labelling on products coming from illegal Israeli settlement colonials in Palestine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome the T\u00e1naiste\u2019s repeated criticisms of Israel\u2019s settlement policy and the illegality of the settlements, and his stated preference is to introduce this EU wide labelling system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile welcoming this as a positive step I, like many others, believe he should be actively working to introduce a ban on the importation of these goods.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am disappointed to read in his reply to my recent Parliamentary Question, that the government does not believe that importations of settlement produce and economically supporting these illegal settlements are a majorly significant issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s settlements crossly impede on Palestinians human rights by restricting their access to water resources and agricultural lands, and it diverts them to the colonial settlements, which allows them to create their produce for export.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s settlement programme, on illegally occupied land, remains one of the biggest threats to a two-state solution and to a resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany\u00a0people in Ireland had\u00a0hoped that this Government would use\u00a0Ireland’s Presidency of the EU to make some significant moves on this issue, but now the T\u00e1naiste is saying that settlement produce are a \u201cless significant sub-issue\u201d<\/i> in their efforts to try halt the expansion of these settlements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU and Ireland\u2019s importation of these products ensures that they are complicit in this illegal activity and abuse, and it is definitely not a \u201cless significant sub-issue\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also pointed to the comparatively low level of trade between the EU and Israeli settlements. However it doesn\u2019t matter if EU trade benefits these settlements by \u20ac10 or \u20ac10 million, Ireland and the EU have an obligation to ban the importation of these products made in areas which violate international and human rights law.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitically I believe\u00a0a ban\u00a0would also have the most effective impact on Israeli policy as it would send a strong message to Israel that it cannot continue to ignore international law. It would also raise greater awareness and consciousness around the issue, in Ireland and Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste\u2019s response reflects the anodyne approach of the government on this issue, especially during the EU Presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland and the EU have repeatedly condemned Israel\u2019s\u00a0settlement building in the West Bank, but they need to be more active around these human rights violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government should be challenging Israel\u2019s flouting of international law at all levels and it needs to begin by supporting a ban on importing settlement products into this state and continue to appeal to their EU counterparts to do likewise.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Diaspora, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on the government to be more forceful and vocal on illegal Israeli settlements, and accused them of becoming more anodyne on the issue during its EU Presidency. Crowe was speaking after he received a reply to a Parliamentary Question he received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,50,48,49,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-affairs","category-human-rights","category-israel","category-israeli-settlements","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1179,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/1179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}