Charity leaders call for Irish EU presidency to focus on sanctions for Israel

'The time for turning a blind eye to Israel's heinous crimes is long over', committee told

The committee heard: 'The EU is critically important to Israel, serving as its largest trading partner and primary source of foreign direct investment. It is therefore in a unique position to be a game changer in response to Israel's persistent breaches of international law. File picture: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

The Government must use the EU presidency to "shift the dial" and convince the bloc to suspend the trade agreement with Israel immediately, charity leaders have said.

Politicians have been told that Israel continues to act with "total impunity", with the head of Trócaire warning "what happened in Gaza is going to happen in the West Bank".

Appearing before the Committee on European Affairs, the charity's CEO Séan Farrell, called on the Government to "show leadership" as it prepares to take up the rotating EU presidency role in July.

"The situations in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon for us in Trócaire are not just a humanitarian crisis, but they are a test of the international system, and also, they're a test of the European Union's commitment to key principles," Mr Farrell said.

Issuing a strong warning, he said: "What happened in Gaza is going to happen in the West Bank, which is you take a large population, you basically corral them into a dense urban environment, and you try then to manage the security issues, or whatever, that will arise from that."

This was echoed by Marie Crawley, board member of Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance, who said Ireland's presidency must confront the gap between the EU's stated values and its practice and must suspend the trade agreement with Israel.

"The EU is critically important to Israel, serving as its largest trading partner and primary source of foreign direct investment. It is therefore in a unique position to be a game changer in response to Israel's persistent breaches of international law. 

"To say that the EU's founding principles have never been deployed in relation to Israel is a profound understatement. On the contrary, Israel enjoys a staggering level of preferential treatment.

Ireland's presidency must confront the gap between the EU's stated principles and values and its practice. The EU must cease all forms of recognition, support or complicity in Israel's unlawful actions.

"The time for turning a blind eye to Israel's heinous crimes is long over."

Ms Crawley also hit out at the Government’s decision not to include the provision of services in its Occupied Territories Bill, stating that "international law is not an à la carte menu from which we can select politically palatable elements."

She said the bill had provided the opportunity to match the strong rhetoric of the Government with meaningful action, but by excluding services, the coalition is creating "a space for impunity".

Speaking via video link from Ramallah, Bushra Khalidi of Oxfam, said that for her organisation, the omission of services from the bill "matters".

"The services element, it really matters because it's directly connected to what we see in our work with Palestinian communities. Settlements are not an abstract legal violation; they're built and they're expanded through an entire economic system that affects people's daily lives, whether it's access to land, water, movement, livelihoods, homes, and basic services," she said.

• Elaine Loughlin is Political Editor.