Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important to begin by saying that supporting this Bill is absolutely the right course of action. It is morally correct to take a stand against legal occupations right across the globe, regardless of the strength of the state involved. This Bill seeks to prohibit Ireland from trading in goods and services from occupied territories by prohibiting the import and sale of those goods and services. It is no surprise there is such widespread support for the legislation. I commend Deputy Niall Collins and Senator Black on their work, which they carried out despite strong opposition from the Government.

To put it simply, this Bill is about upholding international law and every state should be held to account in the same way. It is recognised that the conflict in the Middle East is complex and we have always supported a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.

However, the continued expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land cannot be condoned and is contrary to international law. The international community, of which we are a part, has a duty to call out and try to stop the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank. We cannot just sit by and do nothing. We have a moral duty to speak out. Ireland has a proud peacekeeping tradition and we are well respected in the international community. We also have our own history of war and violence on this island, so we acutely understand the challenges and the complexities attaching to that and what it takes to move beyond violence to peace. We are not seeking to boycott Israel and we, of course, respect its territory, but we cannot support the illegal settlements. What we need to see from both sides is a genuine commitment to achieving peace.

This Bill very practically seeks to make it an offence for a person to import settlement goods or services that come from an occupied territory or to extract resources from an occupied territory. If all countries adopted the same approach, it would make it far less worthwhile or desirable for a state to occupy a territory illegally, so the positive impact is obvious. Why not lead the way? It is a non-violent way of encouraging compliance with international laws. The penalties are a fine or imprisonment and show that we are serious about tackling this issue.

The Government's view of the Bill is that while Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are clearly illegal, Ireland cannot ban trade in settlement goods unilaterally because trade is an exclusive competence of the EU. Generally this is true, but there are exceptions to this rule and the Minister of State knows that. These exceptions are on a public policy basis. We in Fianna Fáil disagree with the interpretation of our EU commitments by the Government and have legal advice to the contrary. The Government is hiding behind unpublished advice from the Attorney General. In reality, there are other reasons the Government does not want to support this Bill and people know full well what those reasons are. While it does make trade an exclusive competence of the EU, EU law also provides that member states can unilaterally introduce restrictions on trade if they can be justified as a matter of public policy. We have had legal advice to suggest that, in this instance, this Bill can be justified on that ground. To be honest, it does not really take a lawyer or expert to come to that conclusion.

Fianna Fáil has always respected the state of Israel and continues to do so. We do not question the right of the Israeli people to exercise their right to self-determination and self-defence, but this does not extend to condoning illegal settlements. The human rights infringements we witness are serious and very real. The way in which the Palestinian people have been treated is appalling and has caused widespread anger. We know there is pressure on the Government from other quarters not to get involved and essentially to ignore what is happening, but we cannot and should not bend to this pressure. Money and power have a lot of influence in this debate, but when one strips them away and asks whether this is the moral and correct thing to do, the only answer is "Yes".

Given that the Government's only reason for not supporting this Bill is its belief that it contravenes EU law, surely it should be looking for a way out of that to try to find a solution whereby it can support the Bill. Will the Minister of State undertake to get a direction from the EU to see if the legal opinion we are putting on this side of the House holds up because we believe it does?

See this speech in context