LAST UPDATE | 19 Jul

IRISH AID CHARITIES have welcomed a ruling by the International Criminal Court that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal.

In its non-binding advisory opinion, The Hague-based court found that Israel was “under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers” from occupied land.

The ruling has drawn added attention because it comes against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Israel’s policies and practices, including the building of new settlements and Israel’s continued maintenance of a wall between the territories, “amount to annexation of large parts” of the occupied territory, the court said.

Oxfam Ireland remarked that the ICJ is “clear” that Israel’s “occupation is a breach of international law”.

It called on the Irish Government to “ensure that all national and international trade agreements are reviewed in that light”.

“Ireland now must be certain that we are not complicit in illegal activities via our trade and investment,” said Bríd McGrath, Oxfam Ireland’s Director of Public Affairs.

“The Palestinians have suffered enough under this longstanding occupation. It is our duty to stand with them and to stand up for the rule of law,” she added.

Meanwhile, Christian Aid Ireland’s Head of Policy & Advocacy Conor O’Neill said the ICJ ruling “must mark a turning point for Ireland and other EU states”.

He added that the ruling “makes clear that the international community cannot just sit by – states have a clear obligation to ensure they do not provide any recognition, aid or assistance to this illegal situation, and the occupation must end”. 

O’Neill called on Ireland to “take heed of this ICJ opinion and lead by example” and that Ireland must, at EU level, “push for the suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement”.

That EU agreement “aims to provide an appropriate legal and institutional framework for political dialogue and economic cooperation between the EU and Israel”.

O’Neill added that the government should pass the Occupied Territories Bill – the Bill seeks to prevent Ireland from trading in goods and services imported from Israeli-occupied territories.

Elsewhere, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the ruling “intensifies the legal and moral responsibility of the international community to help bring the occupation to an end”.

She added that “arming Israel, as it commits war crimes, flies in the face of that objective”.

McDonald also called for the Irish Government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, as well as the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill.

The Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill seeks to impose “prohibitions and restrictions” on the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in dealings with any entities that appear on a UN Database of companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. 

ActionAid Ireland meanwhile called on all UN member states to uphold the judgement of the ICJ.

It’s CEO Karol Balfe said people in the occupied Palestinian territory experience the “trauma of living under a brutal occupation that severely curtails their basic rights and freedoms just because they are Palestinian”.

She added that today’s ruling “affirms the fundamental right of Palestinians to self-determination and to live free from violence and discrimination, which has been denied them for far too long”.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign also welcomed the decision and its chairperson Zoe Lawlor said the Irish Government must “act now to end this continued criminal oppression of the Palestinian people”.

She said this includes enacting the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlement Divestment Bill, as well as ending the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace by the US Military and breaking all diplomatic relations with Israel.