Tell Fianna Fáil and the Greens not to ditch the Occupied Territories Bill!
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party are deep in negotiations to form the next government. They will soon begin discussing matters of foreign affairs – and we need to make sure that Fianna Fáil and the Greens know they can’t just forget about their election commitments that they would support the passage of the Occupied Territories Bill into law.
Indeed, we are very concerned that the Occupied Territories Bill will be discarded by the parties during government negotiations even though it is supported by the overwhelming majority of TDs and Senators.
To ensure that this doesn’t happen it is absolutely vital to that all supporters of Palestinian rights ask Fianna Fáil and the Greens to remember their election commitments to enacting this vital legislation. They should be reminded that now is not the time to forget about the people of Palestine – rather, with Israel’s plan to illegally annex the West Bank moving ahead, such robust legislation is needed now more than ever to defend international law.
THIS REALLY IS THE LAST CHANCE SALOON FOR THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES BILL – AND YOUR SUPPORT IS CRUCIAL!
We ask you to email or call your local Fianna Fail and Green Party TDs to let them know how important the Occupied Terriroties Bill is to you as voter. The relevant email addresses are:
Fianna Fáil: micheal.martin@oir.ie, sean.haughey@oir.ie
Green Party: eamon.ryan@oir.ie, pauline.oreilly@oir.ie
Your local TDs’ (including Independents’) email addresses can be found here by searching by constituency.
Experience has shown that it’s more effective to write your own messages – no matter how short or long – rather than copy and pasting a generic text. So while we ask you to compose your own email, here are some tips.
- Always be respectful, no matter your personal opinion of the parties or individual politicians.
- Be as brief as you can, and note that you understand that they are receiving huge amounts of correspondence every day due to people’s fears about the Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures.
- Note that although the Covid19 Pandemic is obviously the most urgent matter facing the Irish government right now, a Program for Government is for the next five years, not just the next five months, and foreign affairs and trade – not least in regard to Israel’s occupation and ongoing colonisation of Palestine – should be an extremely important aspect of that Program.
- When writing to Fianna Fail members, highlight that a commitment to passing the Occupied Territories Bill was in their election manifesto, and that people have put faith in them to deliver on this commitment.
- When writing to Green, Social Democrat or Labour members, highlight their parties previous support for the Occupied Territories Bill, and the commitments by the Greens, Labour and Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy during the election, and that people have put faith in them to deliver on this commitment.
- When writing to Fine Gael members, highlight that the vast majority of voters cast their ballots for parties that support the Occupied Territories Bill and that any government of change must listen to these people and act on that wide cross-party support.
- Note that we cannot simply abandon the Palestinian people, that action is needed, and Palestinians are calling for this legislation to be passed.
- Note that this legislation is required to bring Ireland into compliance with its of non-recognition of and non-assistance to serious breaches of international law. The current situation cannot be allowed to continue if the Ireland is serious about its commitments to human rights and the rule of law.”
- What Covid19 has made clear is that we live in hugely interconnected world and even small decisions and actions taken (or not taken), thousands of miles away can have huge effects on behaviour patterns and modes of operation. By passing the Occupied Territories Bill, Ireland has a chance to make a hugely positive contribution to the rule of international law – in Palestine and beyond.
We ask you to please take a few minutes to make this important contact with your politicians to let them know that even in the midst of global tragedy and uncertainty and fear here at home, you have not forgotten about the people of Palestine – and neither should they!