In July, the Irish parliament will consider a Bill banning the import of goods and services from Israeli settlements. The Irish parliament (the Seanad) debated the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 on Tuesday 30 of January, but decided to postpone a vote until later in the year.

Tabled by Senator Frances Black, this Bill seeks to prohibit certain economic activity with illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under international law. This Bill would apply to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, which include the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian Golan. As presented, the Bill would not implement a ban on goods made in Israel - only goods produced in Israeli settlements in occupied territories deemed illegal under international law.

Following the 1967 occupation of the Syrian Golan, 130 thousand people were forcibly transferred or displaced and 340 villages and farms were destroyed by the Israeli military. Israel has actively encouraged the establishment of industries and businesses in the 34 illegal settlements in the region and the exploitation of natural resources for commercial gain. The occupied Golan provides Israel with more than a third of its annual water consumption, while approximately 20% of the occupied Golan’s settlement produce (such as beef, apples, vegetables, wine) is exported to at least twenty different countries. This thriving settlement economy only exists because of Israel’s discriminatory policies which remove competition and distribute vital resources in an inequitable manner, stunting the growth of the local Syrian economy.

Senator Black commenced the Seanad debate, stating that “we strongly condemn the settlements but support them economically. As international law is clear that the settlements are illegal, the goods they produce are, in effect, the proceeds of crime”. If passed, this Bill would “end our complicity by prohibiting the import and sale of goods from illegal settlements and prevent Irish involvement in the provision of settlement services and the extraction of natural resources.”

Senator David Norris quoted from a letter sent to The Irish Times by a group of Israeli citizens (including ambassadors for the State of Israel, winners of the Israel Prize, professors, artists, members of the Knesset and the former attorney general of Israel). This group stated that ‘we are convinced that Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is morally and strategically unsustainable, is detrimental to peace and poses a threat to the security of Israel itself. While Ireland, along with the rest of the EU, considers the occupation illegal, it continues to economically sustain it by trading with illegal Israeli settlements established in clear and direct violation of international law’.

Just before the Seanad debate, the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the Bill. The following day the Irish Ambassador to Israel Alison Kelly was summoned to the Israeli foreign ministry, where she stressed that the Bill was a private initiative that did not have the support of the Irish Government.

ENDS
Al-Marsad is an independent, not-for-profit, legal human rights organisation – it is the only human rights organisation operating in the occupied Syrian Golan. For additional information, please contact marsad@golan-marsad.org or researcher@golan-marsad.org