Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

621. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 353 of 24 January 2017, if he will give consideration to the imposition by the State of a boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in view of the customary obligations of non recognition and non assistance under international law (details supplied). [19185/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ireland and the European Union do not recognise as legal or provide assistance to the development of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. We maintain very clearly the position that settlements are illegal, and harmful both to the Palestinian people and to the prospects for peace between Israel and its neighbours.

Ireland has consistently highlighted the issue of settlements in EU and other international discussions, and these issues have been at the centre of my interventions at the Foreign Affairs Council when the Middle East Peace process is discussed.

I was therefore also supportive of the UN Security Council’s recent call on States, in Resolution 2334, to distinguish in their dealings between the territory of Israel and of the occupied territory. This differentiation is something which I have argued for at EU level and, as reported here to the House on many occasions, the EU has taken a number of important steps in that regard in recent years, including in relation to product labelling and EU research funding.

I would be open to considering in principle a proposal that the EU should exclude products from illegal settlements from entering the EU market. However, the inescapable fact is that there is no prospect of such a proposal gaining wider support at present.