I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to impose certain prohibitions and restrictions with respect to the investment by the National Treasury Management Agency of the assets of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in undertakings which appear on the UN Database of companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land; to require the Agency to ensure that such assets are not invested in such an undertaking (and, where it becomes aware that an undertaking in which such assets have been so invested by it is, or has been on the said UN database, to divest the assets of that fund from such investment); and to provide for related matters.
It is with a mix of urgency and anger that I introduce this Bill. My sense of urgency is informed by the illegal actions of Israel as it continues to annex Palestinian territories illegally. There are more than 130 illegal settlements, with more than 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers living on the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. My anger is driven by the knowledge that an Irish Government agency has acted in a manner that has made the Irish taxpayer a party to the illegal Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories. The stark reality is the Government and the taxpayer, in whose name the Government seeks to act, have been made stakeholders in the war crime that is the ongoing illegal annexation of Palestinian territories.
The Bill's origins lie in the May 2021 motion on annexation, which received cross-party support in the House. The motion's passing meant that Ireland was the first European country to recognise that the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories amounted to a de facto annexation. Israeli settlements and their maintenance and expansion are illegal under international law and amount to war crimes. In addition, Israeli settlements have resulted in a host of human rights violations against the Palestinian population, including the unlawful demolition of homes and infrastructure, the demolition of agricultural land, forced displacement, unlawful killings and more.
Illegal settlements are also a key component of Israel's apartheid regime under which Israel administers the territory under two entirely separate legal systems and sets of institutions. Israeli, European and international business enterprises that operate with or provide services to Israeli settlements play a critical role in facilitating the sustainability and growth of the illegal settlements. Business enterprises that are directly or indirectly involved in the Israeli settlement enterprise run a high risk of involvement in grave violations of international humanitarian law and internationally recognised crimes.
The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, was established in late 1990 to manage the assets and liabilities of the Irish Government. Part of its brief is to manage Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund and the Irish national debt. It also has responsibility for the management of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, which is a sovereign wealth fund with a mandate to invest on a commercial basis to support economic activity in Ireland. A UN database of companies operating in the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land was published by the UN Human Rights Council in 2020. A total of 120 companies the UN has identified as operating in breach of international law in the occupied territories are listed on that database. ISIF has invested Irish taxpayers' money in nine companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and it is important to note that ISIF investments include those in four Israeli banks that are instrumental in facilitating the ongoing campaign of annexation through the provision of funding and loans and the operation of ATMs in the illegal settlements, making the banks partners in settlement expansion. Through their actions, the banks are aiding and abetting war crimes.
Bearing in mind that through the passing of the motion on annexation, the Dáil and the Government accepted that the settlements were illegal and amounted to de facto annexation, this means a statutory Irish body, ISIF, has made the Irish taxpayer a shareholder in an enterprise which a House of its Parliament, the Dáil, has deemed illegal. In simple terms, the purpose of this Bill is to mandate ISIF to divest itself of all current assets and to prohibit future investments in any companies which operate in the illegal Israeli settlements and which are listed in the UN database of companies deemed to be operating in an illegal Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian land. It is my intention that this Bill will end Ireland's involvement in Israel's illegal enterprises and act as a catalyst for other EU countries and others internationally to follow in the hope we can end this system of oppression against the Palestinian people.
