Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has strongly supported efforts in the EU and the OECD to promote the accountability, transparency and effective management of natural resources. In particular, Ireland supports the EU regulation on conflict minerals. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation leads on this area in coordination with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

The Kimberley Process is an intergovernmental process, supported by the United Nations, to control the entry of diamonds to the world market, and prevent the exploitation of diamonds by rebels and warlords in diamond producing countries. Once diamonds have entered the market in an approved way, there is no reason to treat them differently from any other product.

This is not a general mechanism for policing human rights issues in every country through which those diamonds subsequently pass.

The suggestion of sanctions on Israel has been made many times by the Deputy and others, and discussed here in the House. Restrictions on trade would have to be imposed at EU or UN level. The Government does not support the imposition of sanctions on Israel, and such a proposal would have no possibility of reaching agreement at EU level.

I have no proposals for a different approach in relation to diamonds.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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14. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the immediate threat to the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar (details supplied); the steps he is taking to ensure that the destruction not take place; and his plans to hold Israel to account if it carries the destruction out. [40111/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am extremely worried about the imminent threat to the Bedouin community of Khan al Ahmar, which we have discussed here on many occasions. The notice to residents to demolish their own structures by 1 October or face enforced demolition clearly indicates that Israel is intent on carrying out this reprehensible action.

These villagers have already been expelled once from their original homes in Israel, and they should have been protected by the occupation authorities, not subjected to further injustice. They have not consented to moving, and it is virtually impossible for them to obtain planning permission from Israeli authorities for housing or other structures in their village.

The forced removal of the Bedouin community to another site is illegal under international law, which clearly prohibits the destruction of private property and the forcible transfer of the population of an occupied territory.

The clearing of Palestinians from this particularly sensitive location in the West Bank is critically damaging to the viability of a future Palestinian state, and thus to the prospects for a peace agreement.

I have made two public statements, in May and July this year, expressing my concerns about Khan al Ahmar, and calling on the Israeli authorities to halt these demolitions and the removal of Palestinian communities. I reiterated these concerns in my speech to the UN General Assembly last week. I have also made Ireland’s views on settlements known directly to the Prime Minister of Israel.

Irish representatives in Ramallah have visited Khan al Ahmar on several occasions, along with EU colleagues, as a show of support for the villagers. Ireland has also pressed strongly for EU action, and the EU has called on Israel to reverse this policy both in private and in public statements, including last month by the EU High Representative on behalf of the EU.