Sir, – Your letters page contained a letter relating to the Occupied Territories Bill (November 4th). So many signatories demanding its enactment. So many organisations referenced, some with interlocking relationships and State supports. So much energy expended in composing its narrative and obtaining signatories. So much selective fact, complexity avoidance and virtue signalling, all utterly irrelevant to any resolution of the tragically ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ending the dreadful wars initiated by Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran against the Israeli state.
Demonising Israel has resulted in competitive party political tendering on the eve of the general election and to which far too many Irish public and aspirant public figures are today addicted.
I want a permanent end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end to the current dreadful bloodshed on all sides and believe conflict will not permanently end until building blocks lead ultimately to Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side in peace, security and harmony with the support of a majority of Israelis and Palestinians. Perhaps the signatories might apply their energies to addressing how that can be best achieved.
Much can be learned by both Israelis and Palestinians from our own peace process, despite a much different and far more complex backdrop to their conflict.
In the short term, those who truly wish the current violence to end might consider a new initiative.
Why not demand that Iran renounce its call for Israel’s destruction, stop threatening Israel with more ballistic missiles, end its support for its proxy terrorist organisations, including Hamas and Hizbullah, and announce its support for a two-state solution?
Perhaps also demand that Hizbullah comply with UN Resolution 1701 and stop firing between 100 and 200 missiles a day at Israel from Lebanon, attacks which go unreported by Irish media.
Finally, demand that Hamas end its armed struggle, release its remaining 101 hostages, renounce its commitment to repeating its atrocities of October 7th, 2023, agree to a civilian Palestinian administration ruling Gaza over which it exercises no control and, together with Hizbullah, commit to the two-state solution and a permanent peace.
Now I understand all of the above is far more complicated than simply demanding the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill, and ignoring its failings – that it replicates Nazi Germany’s 1930s boycott of Jewish businesses, that it violates EU law and also US law applicable to the many major US multinationals located in our State, providing tens of thousands of Irish jobs, and places them in jeopardy.
However, it might in the long term prove more productive. It would also create a new narrative for future letters to The Irish Times which, we all know, directly impact world events! – Yours, etc,
ALAN SHATTER,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – The Government should be commended for undertaking to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, even if it is being done with an air of reluctance. However, the announcement that this will not happen until after a general election, despite the Opposition parties agreeing to provide Dáil time, shows a deeply disappointing lack of urgency (“Occupied Territories Bill will not be given more Dáil time”, News, November 4th).
With public attention understandably most focused on the worsening horror in Gaza, the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is sometimes overlooked, but the scale and impact are hugely significant. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli colonial settlers have moved onto Palestinian land over the decades, building villages and infrastructure, and it is obvious that the intention is to make the encroachments irreversible.
In recent times, the government of Binyamin Netanyahu has actively encouraged an expansion of these settlements, which have always been illegal under international law, and there has been a marked upsurge in settler violence against the Palestinian population.
Indeed, it should be remembered that the attack and atrocities carried out by Hamas and its allies in southern Israel on October 7th last year were framed partly as a reaction to rampant Israeli settler violence and encroachment in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinians have seen the colonial settlements grow exponentially with no serious action taken by the “international community”.
Moreover, some senior Israeli politicians have made it plain that the long-term intention is annexation. Mr Netanyahu has openly dismissed the “two-state solution”, a plan that the US and the EU officially favour but have made no real effort to bring about.
The settlements are part of a crude Israeli strategy to change the facts on the ground and to eliminate any chance of a sustainable future Palestinian state.
In reality, of course, the Occupied Territories Bill has a narrow purpose. It aims specifically to ban trade in goods and services between Ireland and the illegal Israeli settlements.
Wider and more impactful sanctions against Israel are also required, but this would certainly be a useful beginning and, hopefully, will encourage other countries to adopt similar legislation. It is the latter possibility that probably most agitates the Israeli state and its supporters in the US.
The Occupied Territories Bill is a long overdue measure and its implementation will be welcomed by all those who support human rights and the Palestinian right to self-determination.
However, a greater sense of urgency by the Government is required. New massacres and war crimes are reported from Gaza every day and still we see no sanctions implemented. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.