Ireland’s position on the illegality of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory informs our engagement with the State of Israel across a range of bilateral issues, including trade and economic issues, and will continue to do so. The EU and its Member States, including Ireland, are wholly opposed to Israeli settlements, which are contrary to international law, and are damaging to the prospects of peace.
Ireland distinguishes in all its dealings between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967 in line with in line with international law and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Ireland is also active on this matter at EU level. EU law and guidelines on this issue are an important part of the EU contribution to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2334.
Ireland has previously raised at EU level the question of whether settlement goods should be excluded from the EU market altogether. However, it is absolutely clear that at present there is no possibility of getting substantial support, still less consensus, for such a proposal.
We have therefore instead focused our advocacy on practical measures to differentiate in EU policies between Israel itself and the illegal settlements. This has resulted in a number of EU measures already, including guidelines on the labelling of settlement goods (so that consumers can identify them and make their own choices in this matter), and exclusion of settlement institutions from EU research funding.
Settlement goods are already excluded from the normal lower tariffs applying to goods from Israel and other countries with which the EU has trade agreements, when they are imported into the EU.
With regard to the announcement on 27 October referred to by the Deputy, during my recent visit to Israel and the oPt, I met with Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid. I conveyed in the strongest terms my concern at this announcement.
On 28 October, Ireland released a statement jointly with eleven other European countries, urging the Israeli Government to reverse this decision and reiterating strong opposition to its policy of settlement expansion across the occupied Palestinian territory. I have raised this issue at the Security Council, as well as with my EU counterparts at the Foreign Affairs Council. With Ireland’s support for the announcement to be discussed at the UN Security Council, the settlement announcement was discussed by the Council on 8 November, at which Ireland highlighted the illegality of the action under international law.
