New Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs Report calls for Irish Government action on Israel’s illegal settlements, demolitions and displacement
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) welcomes the publication of a new report by the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence entitled “Demolitions and Displacements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The 112-page report, the product of several months of investigation by the Committee, is clear in its critique and condemnation of the illegal nature of Israel’s home demolitions, population displacements and settlement construction.
The report also makes a list of recommendations (pp.47-49), most of which are broadly supported by the IPSC, in particular the calls for Ireland to:
• Agree a graduated set of proposals and concrete measures domestically, including diplomatic and economic and in conjunction with international organisations and bodies, to apply where further violations and breaches of international law occur;
• Support the annual update of the UN Database on Businesses Active in the Settlements, including through budgetary contributions to ensure the long-term viability of the Database, and to ensure the findings of the Database are adhered to in its public procurement activities;
• Support an International Court of Justice Opinion on the illegality of the prolonged occupation and de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory;
• Demand reparation from the Israeli Government, for the destruction of projects where Irish and EU funding was utilised;
• Support the call by Palestinian victims for an International Criminal Court investigation into evictions in Sheikh Jarrah amongst others.
The IPSC urges the Irish government to act fully upon these recommendations, while recognising that without taking concrete and meaningful action to sanction the Apartheid State of Israel for all of its human rights and international law violations, these crimes will continue unabated.
Further, the IPSC invites you read our submission and recommendations to the Joint Committee (which is included in the final report), which you can find online here.
The full JCFAD ‘Report Demolitions and Displacements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory‘ can be read here.