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IRELAND COULD BRING forward sanctions against Israel after it assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July, Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley has said.
It comes following international condemnation of a video shared by Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir which showed Gaza-bound activists who were illegally detained in international waters kneeling with their hands bound.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has written to the European Council president António Costa calling for the suspension of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel following its “shocking” treatment of the activists.
He said the EU cannot continue with a “business as usual approach” to Israel as it continues to behave in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the bloc’s basic principles.
On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said Ireland was among nine EU member states to call for the European Commission to ban trade with illegal settlements at a trade meeting in Brussels.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, Timmy Dooley said Martin has been meeting with other European leaders over the last number of weeks ahead of Ireland taking hold of the EU Presidency.
“That has been very much part of his agenda, trying to build a consensus and a recognition that the outrageous behaviour of the Israeli government, led by Netanyahu, cannot be allowed to operate in the way that it has,” the Fianna Fáil TD said.
Asked if during the six-month presidency, Ireland would be able to bring forward effective sanctions against Israel, Dooley said: “We very much hope so.”
On 21 May, McEntee told the Dáil that she would be bringing forward the Occupied Territories Bill “in the coming weeks, irrespective of whether we reach a consensus at a European level, and we will enact that legislation”.
The long-awaited draft bill has been in the works since 2018. It proposes to limit trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The Bill, which was first introduced by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018, proposed making it an offence “for a person to import or sell goods or services originating in an occupied territory or to extract resources from an occupied territory in certain circumstances”.
But the government has been criticised for omitting services from the Bill.
Asked about the government’s proposed ban on importing goods from Israel earlier this week, Martin said he did not believe a ban on services from Israel was “implementable or viable” and said “the advice we have on that is fairly solid”.
“Also, legally, it’s not within our capacity to do it,” he added.
When asked today if the Bill would be passed before the Dáil rises in July, Timmy Dooley said: “I don’t know, but I think the expectation is to move very quickly. To introduce and obviously to get it through as quickly as possible.”
Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly accused Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of putting obstacles in the way of the Bill since it was introduced in 2018.
“The reason why Israel behaves the way it does is because there are no consequences and no sanctions,” she said.
“The Occupied Territories Bill could be passed very quickly, because we have said we will clear the Dáil schedule. Let’s get it done… but it has to include services. It has to have teeth. It has to have meaning.”
She said her party would be putting forward amendments to strengthen the Bill if it does not include services.
The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill is listed under “priority publication” in the government’s spring legislative programme.
Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed last July.
Last week, the Dáil voted against a bill that proposed imposing sanctions on Israel.
The People Before Profit bill, which had sought to ban all trade, investment, financial dealings and state-linked economic activity with Israel, was defeated by 77 voted to 62.
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