New settlement report backs demand to include services in Occupied Territories Bill
A major new report reveals the extent to which trade with illegal Israeli settlements by major EU companies, including those trading in services, has and continues to directly contribute to the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The ‘Trading with Illegal Settlements’ report is published by an alliance of more than 80 international civil society organisations, including Oxfam and Christian Aid, and demonstrates how illegal trade is directly contributing to the oppression, dispossession and impoverishment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The report’s findings add weight to the demand to include a ban on trade in both services as well as goods with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories Bill when it becomes law.
The report sets out how the need to end trade in services is not limited to Ireland but extends right across the EU. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner accounting for 32% of overall trade, amounting to €42 billion a year, including up to €350 million worth of goods annually from Israeli settlements. The report also recommends the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel fully complies with the human rights obligations of the agreement.
Trailer: Palestinian Life Under Israel’s Illegal Occupation
Conor O’Neill, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid Ireland, said: 'This research shows the seriousness of the situation in the West Bank, but also the potential for leadership. Since the Dáil went into recess in July, three more EU states have moved ahead on this. Ireland has gone from being the likely first European country to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlements, to possibly the fourth. This is an encouraging sign, but also shows the real risk of us setting the bar too low. We have a crucial opportunity to get this right and ensure that an emerging new EU standard is effective. That means doing what the ICJ said is required, and what the Dáil Foreign Affairs Committee strongly supported: full ban on all trade with the settlements, both goods and services. Anything less would be inconsistent with international law and would let the banks, tech and tourism companies profiting from occupation off the hook.'
Senator Frances Black, who tabled the original Occupied Territories Bill, said: 'We have been debating this legislation for seven long years, and in that time the situation in Palestine has rapidly deteriorated. We’re now facing into the devastating reality of a live-streamed genocide in Gaza. The time for talk is over. EU states, including Ireland, must finally act. I’m calling on the Irish Government to listen to the clear recommendations of the Dáil Foreign Affairs Committee, to the ICJ, and to the people of this country and to finally pass the full Occupied Territories Bill, including services. We have three months now of this Oireachtas term, there are no excuses not to finally get this over the line.'
