Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has welcomed confirmation that the Taoiseach has finally commenced discussions with other EU states on possible economic sanctions against Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a welcome but overdue development. Since November last year, the Social Democrats have been calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has an \u2018essential elements\u2019 human rights clause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means either side can unilaterally suspend the agreement in response to serious breaches of human rights. We, and others, have argued that if Israel\u2019s barbaric attacks on the people of Gaza are not sufficient to trigger this clause, then nothing ever will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, the Taoiseach said he would seek legal advice on whether the human rights clause had been breached \u2013 but he has failed to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am glad to see he is now belatedly taking steps to lobby at EU level for this trade agreement to be reviewed. The EU is Israel\u2019s largest trading partner, with trade between the two amounting to more than \u20ac46 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that the US is about to impose a second round of sanctions against violent settlers in the West Bank \u2013 to potentially include Israeli politicians and government officials \u2013 underscores the EU\u2019s lacklustre response to the Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland must now use its influence to convince other EU member states to impose economic sanctions on Israel. We should also immediately introduce travel bans on extremist settlers, including those who are members of the Israeli government.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 1, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has welcomed confirmation that the Taoiseach has finally commenced discussions with other EU states on possible economic sanctions against Israel. \u201cThis is a welcome but overdue development. Since November last year, the Social Democrats have been calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has an \u2018essential elements\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[408,400,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-affairs","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n