The Frances Black’s Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 is coming up for debate in the Seanad on 11 July 2018. This divisive Bill states that it “seeks to prohibit the import and sale of goods originating in illegal settlements in the occupied territories”.
We need you to TAKE ACTION NOW! We need you to concentrate on the Fianna Fail Senators and TDs, Please email them, or send them a hard copy letter, asking them to REJECT and VOTE AGAINST this divisive Bill. If this Bill gets through it will be seen as a symbolic victory for the divisive BDS movement. Below is a list of those representatives you need to contact.
The anti-Israel lobby states that this is not a BDS Boycott, but we firmly believe it is just an incremental step towards a full boycott. All of those who support this Bill also support BDS. We are in no doubt that Frances Black and everyone who supports this Bill sees it as just a stepping stone to full BDS. We must ACT to stop it NOW!
Here are some pointers that you can use in your email. The email doesn’t have to be long. A few short sentences in your own words can be enough:
- This divisive Bill is just another step by supporters of the BDS movement to starve Israel economically and isolate it socially. Anyone who has any interest in creating a climate for peace in the Middle East should reject this Bill.
- Apart from considerations of the illegality of this Bill, in that Ireland is part of the EU, and cannot decide to unilaterally boycott a State that other EU member states are trading freely with, the Bill is targeted unfairly against the world’s only Jewish state in a region in which very real human rights abuses are being perpetrated.
- Israel is continually vilified on the world stage for defending the lives of its citizens. The Irish media have propagated a narrative of Israeli soldiers firing indiscriminately to kill unarmed “peaceful demonstrators” on the Israel-Gaza border. However, written and video evidence is widely available of the true intention of Hamas, which is to annihilate Jews worldwide.
- There are no settlements in Gaza. There are no Jews in Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, removing some 6,000 Jews in an effort for peace. Look at what happened.
- Instead of boycotting Israel, and yes, the Bill is effectively calling for a boycott, Irish legislators should be standing in solidarity with a fellow democracy that has struggled for 70 years to protect both its right to self-determination and the lives of its citizens.
- Israel is a multi-cultural and ethnically diverse society where freedom of religion is respected. Israel is also an open society, where freedom of expression is sacrosanct. The Arab population of Israel makes up 1/5 of Israel’s population and are freer than all Arabs living in Arab countries around the world.
- The Bill ignores the contribution made by the settlements to the Palestinian economy and the welfare of ordinary Palestinians. A criminalization of trade in products made in the Israeli settlements would impact negatively on the Palestinian economy in general and on the livelihoods of a significant portion of the Arab Palestinian population in particular; a case in point being when SodaStream was forced by BDS to relocate from the West Bank to Israel’s Negev Desert in 2015, resulting in the loss of some 600 Palestinian jobs.
- Since the aim of Senator Black’s proposed Bill is to criminalize trade in goods or services produced in the settlements, which would include east Jerusalem, Irish citizens and firms purchasing such goods or otherwise trading with the settlements would be open to prosecution.
- Then there are the very real security concerns of Israel’s citizens, Jewish and Arab alike. Israel is a tiny nation (smaller in land area than Munster). The Jewish settlements near the border form a bulwark of defence for Israel against attack from the east. It is important to remember that Israel took possession of the West Bank in 1967, only when it was attacked by Jordan in the Six Day War.
- Israel has made repeated efforts to establish a Palestinian state, but all of its efforts have been rebuffed, because the Palestinian leadership are not interested in a two-state solution, and neither, for that matter are the supporters of BDS, who only wish to see a Palestinian state in the area. The latest example was only this week, when PA President Mahmoud Abbas refused to sit down with the US representative and other Arab leaders to discuss a peace plan.
- The passing of this Bill will only sow division and achieve nothing in terms of peace. This symbolic gesture will only give strength to the notion that the Palestinian leadership needs to do nothing to advance peace, except sit and wait for the boycotts to work. What we need is more economic interaction, not less.
On a final note, please remind the Senators and TDs that the supporters of this Bill also support the BDS Movement.
The supporters of the BDS movement have zero interest in a two-state solution. The BDS movement fools people into thinking that it is only opposed to Israeli settlement policy, whereas it is opposed to Israel’s very existence. Why would any decent-minded person wish to be associated with a movement that seeks to destroy a nation state?
Thank you for your support!
by Jackie Goodall
