Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator Black on her extensive work on the Bill and I am very pleased that she has joined us.

In an interview recorded in 1976 the then Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, said the settlement movement was akin to a cancer for Israel that would eventually undermine the democratic nature of the country.

More than 40 years later we can see how accurate was his assessment. The international community has to a large extent stood back and watched as the land bank that would have constituted the majority of the future Palestinian state has been carved up and fractured by illegal Israeli settlements. The construction of settlements has caused untold misery for the Palestinian people. Land is seized for illegal residential and commercial developments. Olive groves are uprooted. Palestinians are not free to travel in or cultivate their own farmland. Access to water, electricity etc. is severely restricted.

In the past 30 years, the lines between illegal military occupation and outright annexation have become so blurred that it is almost impossible to envisage a resolution to the conflict. Today, the prospect of a two-state solution seems very remote and a lifetime away from the promises of the Oslo Accords. The unwillingness of the Israeli Government to engage in meaningful talks on the future of Palestine, emboldened as it is by the rhetoric of the current US administration, means that as long as the Palestinians can be kept contained peace is unachievable.

It is in this context that we must situate Senator Black's Bill. The Social Democrats strongly welcomes the objectives of this legislation. It amounts to a simple recognition of the illegality of the annexation and occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The status of these settlements was affirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2004. It called on states not to render aid or assistance in maintaining them. If we are to adhere to the Government and EU position that the settlements constitute a major obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible, then we simply should not be engaging in trade with those settlements.

To continue to do so will further embolden Israel to annex more than the 42% of the West Bank that it now controls and to approve the building of more settlements. The most common exports from the illegally-occupied territories are agricultural products such as fruit and vegetables, as well as some types of cosmetics that use Dead Sea mineral extracts. This is simply theft. While the value of products imported from the settlements into Ireland is low, somewhere between about €500,000 and €1 million per year, the passing of this Bill would send a strong message of solidarity to the Palestinian people and also to other EU member states.

As a whole, the EU imports goods worth €230 million each year from the illegal settlements, whereas imports from Palestine amount to a mere €15 million. Make no mistake, through our inaction we have turned a blind eye and allowed this situation to continue. In trading with the settlements we give them legitimacy and provide them with the vital economic support that allows them to sustain and, indeed, expand. In supporting this Bill, we do not wish to position ourselves against the state of Israel. We acknowledge it as a component state of the two-state solution, but only within the borders of 1967. That means accepting that to engage in trade with the illegal settlements is to grant them an unwarranted legitimacy. We cannot continue to allow this to happen as it is a disservice to the pursuit of peace in the region.

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