Ireland and the European Union do not recognise as legal or provide assistance to the development of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. We maintain very clearly the position that settlements are illegal, and harmful both to the Palestinian people and to the prospects for peace between Israel and its neighbours.
Ireland has consistently highlighted the issue of settlements in EU and other international discussions, and these issues have been at the centre of my interventions at the Foreign Affairs Council when the Middle East Peace process is discussed.
I was therefore also supportive of the UN Security Council’s recent call on States, in Resolution 2334, to distinguish in their dealings between the territory of Israel and of the occupied territory. This differentiation is something which I have argued for at EU level and, as reported here to the House on many occasions, the EU has taken a number of important steps in that regard in recent years, including in relation to product labelling and EU research funding.
I would be open to considering in principle a proposal that the EU should exclude products from illegal settlements from entering the EU market. However, the inescapable fact is that there is no prospect of such a proposal gaining wider support at present.