Cavan backs Occupied Territories Bill

Decision made at Monday's Council meeting.

Cavan County Council has joined a growing number of local authorities across Ireland to back the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill, legislation aimed at stop the importation of goods and services produced on settlements in illegally occupied Palestinian territory.

Others include city councils in Dublin and Cork, and local authorities in Sligo, Meath, Galway, with hope that more will add their names to the list and the weeks progress.

In Cavan Sinn Féin's Stiofán Conaty tabled a motion regarding the Bill, first introduced before the Oireachtas as far back as 2018 by Independent Senator Frances Black, who was present in the council chamber last Monday, October 14.

A similar motion was unanimously agreed by members of Dublin City Council the week before, and Sen Black and her upper house colleague, Senator Eileen Flynn, addressed local elected members in Cavan on the subject prior to their October monthly meeting taking place.

The OTB seeks a complete ban on the import of good and services produced within Israel's ever-expanding settlement of Palestinian land and, if enacted, Ireland would become the first western country to cut trade ties with the country governed by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led coalition.

Previous Attorney Generals had advised the proposed change of law ran contrary to European Union trade law. However, following a July ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the illegal settlements on Palestinian land, the government sought fresh legal advice from the current Attorney General Rossa Fanning.

Cllr Conaty said that, over the past 12 months, “Israeli genocide in Gaza has broadened and deepened. Netanyahu has opened the gates of hell and is dragging Palestine through them. There must be an immediate and total ceasefire, Israel must be held to account, and Ireland can and should play a role in building peace in the region.”

He went on to say that Ireland, along with the rest of the world, has thus far “looked on as Israel carries out war crimes on a daily basis and perpetrates a blatant genocide against the Palestinian people. This meeting today takes place more than a year into this genocide, a year which has seen a disproportional response from Israel to the events of October 7, for which ordinary and innocent men, women and children have been collectively punished for the actions of a handful of militants.”

Cllr Conaty listed the numbers caught up in the conflict: More than 41,000 Palestinian people “murdered”, almost 90,000 people severely injured, and 96% of the population - some 2.15 million people - facing acute food insecurity, disease and displacement “all within the confines of an open-air prison no larger than the size of a cluster of parishes”.

He claimed that aid workers and journalists have been “expressly targeted” and that every single hospital, school and university in Gaza “levelled".

Cllr Conaty added: "Little to none of its basic infrastructure remains. We know all this because this is the first genocide in history to be documented in minute-by-minute detail, live-streamed onto our phones and TVs, leaving us no excuse for our inaction.”

The newly elected councillor went on to say that the conflict is part of a wider, decades-long “campaign of destruction of the Palestinian people", one which did not begin on October 7.

"As Irish people, our history compels us towards solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world because we know what it is like. I am proud of the generation of Irish people who stood with the black population in South Africa, part of a coalition of nations who knew that sanctions and boycotts were the only effective means to uprooting the apartheid regime. The Irish people did not stand idly by then and we cannot not stand idly by now, as Israel blatantly breaches international law and attempts to wipe Palestine off the planet.”

Cllr Conaty concluded by saying, while Israel continues to receive billions of dollars in “arms and political cover for their crimes against humanity", Ireland watches overhead as the "instruments of genocide and the weapons of warfare" are transported through sovereign Irish airspace.

"This is illegal, this is known-about, and yet the Irish Government refuses to impose sanctions on Israel. The regime has now spread its war machine into Lebanon, where they have callously threatened UN peacekeepers and ordered Irish troops to relocate, forcing our men and women on peacekeeping missions to choose between their duties as soldiers and their own lives, as Israel prepares to bombard their positions. Netanyahu must be stopped and now is the time for real action.”

Cllr Conaty's motion received backing from his fellow party colleagues Noel Connell and Damien Brady. It was passed unanimously.

Speaking to the Celt after the meeting had ended, Sen Black said it was important to see that there is unanimous “grassroots backing” for this legislation across the country.

“This Bill is about banning goods from illegal settlements. The people of Ireland want tangible action. Really, this Bill can make a huge difference for the people of Palestine and it is the first step towards sanctioning Israel for the horrific genocide that's happening.”