Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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353. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will raise the issue of an EU-wide boycott of goods from Israeli settlements with his EU counterparts in view of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which describes Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as illegal and a flagrant violation under international law. [3236/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I welcomed the passing of Security Council resolution 2334, which restated important international positions on the Middle East Peace Process and on critical issues such as settlements. The reiteration that settlements are illegal under international law was timely, but it is not new. This has been the clear position of the Government, of the EU, and of the broader international community, for many years.

I was supportive of the Security Council’s call on States to distinguish in their dealings between the territory of Israel and of the occupied territory. This is been a view which I have argued for at EU level and, as reported here to the House on many occasions, there have been a number of important steps taken in that regard in recent years, including in relation to product labelling and EU research funding.

I am not in favour of a trade boycott against Israel. I would be open to considering any proposal to the effect that the EU should consider excluding products from illegal settlements from the EU market. However, it is quite clear that there is little prospect of such a proposal gaining wider support at present.