Ireland Backs Ban on Settlement Products
Image by getty images
Ireland would support a European Union ban on goods produced in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but “there is no prospect for reaching an agreement” on such a ban, the Irish foreign minister said.
“Ireland would support such a ban [on goods from Israeli settlments in the West Bank] at E.U. level,” Eamon Gilmore said in a Nov. 2 letter to the chairman of the Irish parliament’s Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade.
However, until there is a prospect for reaching an agreement among E.U. members on banning settlements products, “it would be a mistake for Ireland to focus our energies on this aspect,” Gilmore wrote.
“Many partners” opposed calls to ban settlement goods, he said.
Gilmore added that a ban “would not, of itself, make settlements unviable.”
He called settlements “a major impediment to peace” and said Ireland will “push for a strong E.U. role in seeking progress on the Middle East peace process.”
The Israeli daily Haaretz, which published a copy of the letter by Gilmore, quoted an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman as saying that the Irish ambassador to Israel would be summoned to “clarify” the letter.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
