Ireland’s parliament will discuss a bill promoting a ban on Israeli settlement goods next month, after a postponement in January, reported Haaretz.
In a tweet posted yesterday, Irish Senator Frances Black announced:
“On July 11th, my bill to ban illegal #SettlementGoods is in the Seanad”.
On July 11th, my bill to ban illegal #SettlementGoods is in the Seanad. We're close to a historic move for justice in #Palestine, but I need your help! Plz take 2m to ask your TDs & Senators to support the bill: https://t.co/p4DXCOH5tU @trocaire @ChristianAidIrl @irishcongress pic.twitter.com/2x3PuOZDBW
— Frances Black (@frances_black) June 27, 2018
Black added:
“We’re close to a historic move for justice in #Palestine, but I need your help! Plz, take 2m to ask your TDs & Senators to support the bill.”
The senator also posted a video urging Irish citizens to tell their lawmakers to back the initiative to boycott products made in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Over 42% of the West Bank has been seized by illegal settlements. This is a war crime, but while we condemn them as illegal, we pay for them by trading in stolen #SettlementGoods. Time to end that hypocrisy: https://t.co/KHAyCmlNqv
— Frances Black (@frances_black) June 27, 2018
Haaretz notes that “the discussion at the Irish Senate regarding the bill was postponed in January after Ireland’s Ambassador to Israel, Alison Kelly, was summoned for a talk at the Foreign Ministry to clarify the legislative initiative at the demand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Kelly told Netanyahu that the Irish government actually opposed the bill, and subsequently informed Rodica Radian-Gordon, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe, “that the bill was not a Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement-linked initiative”.
Netanyahu summoned the Irish ambassador in Israel, Alison Kelly, just hours after the bill was debated in Ireland’s senate https://t.co/rIShCtBvKr
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) January 31, 2018
As recalled by Haaretz, “a group of Israeli activists, among whom were former Knesset members, lawyers, former ambassadors, artists, and academics, penned a letter asking Irish lawmakers to support the bill” in January.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
