Mr. ?amonn Meehan:

I thank the committee for inviting Sadaka to make a presentation. A key element in the strategy to make permanent Israel’s 57-year long occupation of Palestinian territory is the construction of settlements. As members heard from Deputy Brady, there are now more than 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers living in 144 settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These settlements are illegal under international law, including under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the statute that established the International Criminal Court and a raft of UN Security Council resolutions. They are an obstacle to the self-determination of the Palestinian people, destroying Palestinian communities, stealing their land and resources such as water, demolishing their homes and infrastructure, and controlling the movement of Palestinian people while deliberately denying them access to their productive resources. The relentless expansion of settlements brings destruction, terror, violence and death to Palestinian communities, towns and villages. The number of settlers has increased almost sevenfold since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Settlers are increasingly violent, in particular since the inclusion in the current Government of Israel of representatives of extreme right-wing religious Zionist parties. They also have access to vast quantities of arms and are protected by Israeli military forces.

In addition to the violence and dispossession this occupation imposes on the Palestinian people, these illegal settlements bring enormous economic benefit to Israel while destroying the Palestinian economy. The 2022 report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, known as UNCTAD, noted that the Israeli economy benefitted by $628 billion between 2000 and 2020 from economic activity in the settlements while the Palestinian economy lost more than $50 billion in the same period.

In the context of Israel’s illegal national settlement enterprise, it is unacceptable that Irish taxpayers' money is invested in Israeli banks and in other businesses that support the settlements and benefit from them, and also support the actions of Israel’s armed forces in its current onslaught on Gaza, which the ICJ has recognised as plausibly a genocide. Many of these enterprises are listed in the UN database of activity in illegal Israeli settlements. However, it is likely that Irish taxpayers' money is invested in other enterprises not listed by the UN database but which actively support, and benefit from, these illegal settlements.

Sadaka understands that the Government is not opposed to the principle behind the draft Bill under review here but has concerns about its constitutionality and operability in its current form. There is, however, clearly no constitutional or operational impediment to ISIF divesting from companies operating in illegal settlements per se, as demonstrated by the enactment of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, which prohibits ISIF from investing in fossil fuel undertakings and which has resulted in ISIF divesting a total of €68 million from 38 companies. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Act followed a process in which the Government engaged with the Opposition parties in the legislative drafting process. There is no reason the same process cannot be followed here. I know this because in my previous occupation, I was involved with Deputy Thomas Pringle, who initiated this legislation and worked effectively across the House to deliver it.

Whatever the issues may be with the specific wording of the Bill under consideration in its current form, it is no longer acceptable for ISIF to maintain investments in businesses that render aid and assistance, and benefit from, an illegal settlement enterprise based on the subjugation of an indigenous people, the destruction of their communities and the theft of what is legitimately and legally theirs. Ireland has a long-standing position, restated frequently in recent months, of supporting a two-state solution. Settlements are the major impediment to the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. While supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Ireland also invests in businesses that sustain and benefit from the very settlements which render impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.

I have a few final points. Issues raised around this draft Bill are not insurmountable. Others have already divested from Israeli enterprises in settlements. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, for instance, has divested from several Israeli companies as well as Israeli bonds. The biggest Dutch, Danish and Norwegian private pension funds have already divested from Israeli companies. Churches, NGOs and individual enterprises around the world have divested. Many enterprises have also ceased operations in the settlements because of action from shareholders.

It is clearly possible to draft legislation to facilitate divestment without the need for a list. There is no list in the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act. The content of such a list is a matter for the NTMA and ISIF. The Bill needs to allow for ongoing management of a divestment strategy with annual reporting to Dáil Éireann. The primary consideration is not the impact on the NTMA or on ISIF on its time and resources.

Investment managers can be instructed in regard to specific enterprises. Again, this is the case with the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act and, I imagine, with the sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There must be specific learning the NTMA and ISIF could bring from that enterprise, which I am sure included divestment from specific enterprises and businesses. Significant research and information is available on enterprises, both Israeli and international, operating in and benefitting from activity in illegal Israeli settlements.

In conclusion, I remind the committee of the advisory issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs to Irish citizens and businesses which is called Advice on investment in Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory. The advisory states:

Financial transactions, investments, purchases, procurements as well as other economic activities ... in Israeli settlements or benefiting Israeli settlements, entail legal and economic risks stemming from the fact that the Israeli settlements, according to international law, are built on occupied land and are not recognised as a legitimate part of Israel's territory.

It is very strange indeed that while the State warns our citizens and businesses of the possible legal consequences and risks of economic activities in the settlements, the State itself continue with economic activities in those same settlements. It is time to end this inconsistent behaviour.