Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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102. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way Ireland can justify supporting trade sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine issue but refuses to implement trade sanctions against Israel, despite it engaging in genocide in Gaza this summer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37738/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Trade sanctions are a political tool and a response to specific political situations or crises, all of which are unique. Sanctions can also have different aims, and the measures which might be effective in one situation may be unsuited to another.

In short, the possible application of sanctions depends on what the EU, or UN, as a whole can agree is the best action to take. If partners do not agree on sanctions as a response, they do not happen.

In the case of the recent tragic conflict in Gaza, we could not dispute the right of Israel to make some sort of military response to attacks on its territory, but we did clearly and loudly condemn as unacceptable and disproportionate the nature of the response that was made, and the dreadful toll of civilian casualties that it caused.

In the case of Ukraine, the EU is faced with an attempt to undermine or threaten the very sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of a major European state, a direct neighbour of several EU members.

This has involved first the illegal seizure of the Crimea, then the destabilisation of another large area, and attacks on Ukrainian forces and officials.A civil aircraft was downed, killing hundreds of EU citizens and many others, including one from Ireland.

It should also be borne in mind that the EU is attempting in this case to prevent a deterioration into a major war in a neighbouring state.

Finally, it is necessary to point out that, dreadful and unacceptable as the events in Gaza have been, it is misleading and counterproductive to describe them as ‘genocide’, a word which has a specific legal meaning which does not apply in this case.