EU action on Gaza
Deputy O'Gorman said Government criticism of Israel was not matched by action and urged stronger steps on the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the occupied territories Bill. The Tánaiste said Ireland was already speaking out strongly, would keep pressing Europe, and would build a coalition rather than rely on letters alone.
This week, both the Tánaiste and Taoiseach have spoken powerfully against Israel's plans for the Gaza Strip, but their powerful words are not matched by their actions. The Government said it will write again to the European Commission regarding the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Is there anything to be said for another letter? In a few weeks, it is going to give us a timeline regarding when it will draft its watered-down occupied territories Bill. The Government's approach does not speak to the urgency of the situation we are seeing day by day, hour by hour in Gaza.
Israel has placed the entire world on notice that it intends to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. Strong words simply are not good enough any longer. Ireland can take clear action here at home that will resonate internationally. The Government must pass the occupied territories Bill covering both goods and services.
Comment on this
I thank Deputy O'Gorman. I acknowledge that he put a real emphasis on this in the previous Government. It is not simply about strong words, although I do think words matter, and I do think speaking out and speaking up matters. Quite frankly, there are a lot of countries not speaking out and speaking up the way Ireland is. Find me another European country that has referred to the actions of Israel in terms of war crimes. We going to continue - and it is not a case of letter writing - to put pressure to build a coalition because the European Union has to live up to its obligations too. We are not just going to do that, however. We are going to pass a Bill with regard to the occupied Palestinian territories. It is going to have to be legally robust. I had a good dialogue with Senator Black in that regard. There are different legal opinions, let us be truthful, around goods and services and what can and cannot be done, and we are happy to thrash that out. That is what this Parliament is meant to do. It is not a policy difference from my perspective around covering services. It truthfully is not. I get the point about covering services. However, the legal advice available to me is that services are legally a different issue from goods. Let us thrash that detail out, however. I am happy to work through that with the Deputy.