Featured photo: The Donegal branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in Lifford today.
Donegal County Council today agreed to urge the Irish government to implement the Occupied Territories Bill, cutting trade ties with Israeli goods and services produced in territories deemed occupied under international law.
The Bill would ban trade between Ireland and Israeli residential, agricultural, and business developments built on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Donegal County Council has now become the 13th local authority to pass a motion seeking the enactment of the Bill.
Independent Councillor Jimmy Brogan brought the motion forward today and said: “We as a council must send a strong message to our government and this bill must be passed as soon as possible.”
Cllr Brogan told the council that more than 750,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, controlling a significant portion of the land and major infrastructure, water and natural resources.
As Israeli settlements continue to expand, Cllr Brogan urged the council to call on the new government, when elected, to put the Occupied Territories Bill into law as soon as possible.
“Other issues that the new Irish government must stop immediately is allowing the US war machine to refuel planes in Shannon Airport filled with weapons intended for genocide in Gaza,” Cllr Brogan said.
He pointed out to members that 45,000 Palestinians have perished in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank during the Israel-Hamas war – around 70% of them women and children.
Cllr Brogan’s motion was seconded by Independent Councillor Declan Meehan, who spoke of visiting the West Bank in 2013 and 2023 – four months before the October attacks and the start of the genocide in Gaza.
“It was bad in 2013, it was horrific to witness first-hand the realities of apartheid and brutal occupation,” Cllr Meehan said.
“As bad as it was in 2013, to return in 2023 in the space of 10 years to see how much worse that occupation had become for the lived experiences and the daily lives of Palestinian people in the West Bank, not to speak of people living in, what we all know is effectively an open-air prison on the Gaza strip.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Gerry McMonagle suggested that the outcome of the motion should be sent to Bani Zeid, a municipality in the West Bank that is twinned with Donegal, as a show of solidarity and support.
Senator Frances Black, who first introduced the bill in 2018, visited Lifford today to hear the proceedings alongside Donegal Senator Eileen Flynn and Donegal TD Thomas Pringle.
Senator Black spoke to the chamber to express her deep gratitude for the support.
“You have no idea what this means to the Palestinian people. Every time I get a motion passed I make sure I let the Palestinian ambassador know,” Senator Black said.
“We see on a daily basis the children and young people being killed, we see the land grabs and beating and torture on a daily basis.”
Senator Black said that when the new government is formed, only two stages remain for the Bill to pass.
If the Occupied Territories Bill is passed into law, Ireland would be the first Western country to take such a stand.
Members of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign Donegal Branch gathered in Lifford ahead of today’s council meeting to seek support for the campaign.
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