Donegal County Council gives unanimous support to the Occupied Territories Bill

Donegal County Council has given its unanimous backing to the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban trade with Israel’s illegal colonial settlements in the Occupied Territories.

The Occupied Territories Bill was first tabled in 2018 by Senator Frances Black and aims to make it an offence in Ireland to import, attempt to import or assist another person in importing goods made in Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law by the UN and most states.

It is hoped the Occupied Territories Bill will be passed into law by the new government following the general election.

The Donegal branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee said: “Today is a great day for Donegal when our elected representatives showed that the people of Donegal stand full square with the people of Palestine in their struggle against oppression under the Israeli apartheid state and its ongoing campaign of genocide.”

Independent Councillor Jimmy Brogan, who introduced the motion, strongly criticised the 750,000 illegal settlers who have forcefully expelled Palestinians from their homes and land, destroying their orchards and olive plantations while abusing their human rights under international law.

“The occupation ensures Israeli control of roads, water and infrastructure in what the International Court has deemed to be apartheid” he said. “We welcome the arrest warrants, recently issued for the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyah] and his former Defence Secretary [Yoav Gallant], and further warrants should be issued for all those culpable in these crimes against humanity. He also called for a halt to the US war machine which made these atrocities possible.”

Seconding the motion, Cllr Declan Meehan, Independent, welcomed the recent International Court ruling declaring Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, which allowed Ireland to now fully enact the OTB and override any EU law that may have been impeding it.

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“The situation that has been happening in Palestine since the 1930s and 1940s is not a new one it is one that has been deteriorating and getting worse year by year,” he said. “The war, the onslaught, the genocide in Gaza that has taken place since October has retrained minds and refocused mines onto the plate of Palestinian people but this is something that has been going on for almost 100 years with the Zionist policies of Western countries and Israeli apartheid state.”

Cllr Meehan said that comparing the situation he observed in 2013, when he first visited the West Bank, with what he experienced on a return visit in 2023, the occupation and apartheid are much worse.

“One of the most startling things was 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 life experiences and the daily lives of Palestinian people in The West Bank, not to speak of those experiences of people living in what we all know is effectively an open-air present on the Gaza strip where 45,000 Palestinians have been killed since October.

"It's not just in Gaza that this is happening. There are land grabs happening on a daily basis, home demolitions taking place in the West Bank. Families are being evicted, orchards being burned, livelihoods destroyed all in favour of Settlement.

“Settlers themselves are given free rein by the Israeli government, by the Israeli army and by their security forces and police forces to do whatever they want to remove Palestinians from their land, without any repercussions. For them the occupation of the West Bank as it is in the Golan Heights and in Gaza. It is illegal.”

Supporting the motion, Cllr Jack Murry, Sinn Fein, related his experience of visiting the Occupied Territories when a taxi driver broke down in tears when Cllr Murray told him about the crowd that came to support the Irish team with Palestine flags.

Cllr Thomas Devine, 100% Redress, also supported the motion and proposed that the Council shouldn’t send any representatives or delegations to Israel. Cllr Ciaran Brogan, Fianna Fáil, said he was fully supportive of the motion and all that had been said.

Cllr Gerry McMonagle, Sinn Féin, proposed that the Council write to the Municipality of Bani Zeid, with which Donegal is twinned, to inform them of their decision.

Responding to the decision to support the OTB, Senator Frances Black thanked the Council profusely saying that Donegal is the 13th council to pass such a motion.

“It has been six long years since I first introduced the Bill and the end is now in sight,” she said. “I will be talking with officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs next week about amendments to the Bill so that it is ready to be passed by the new government.” The people of Palestine, she added, “will be deeply grateful and that she will inform the Palestinian Ambassador who will pass the message to the Palestinian people.”