Donegal County Council to push for sanctions on Israel for ongoing genocide in Gaza

Donegal County Council will write to An Tánaiste Micheál Martin, stressing the need for Ireland to lobby for international sanctions on Israel.

Sinn Féin councillor Gary Doherty from the Lifford-Stranorlar MD brought the motion to Donegal County Council in the wake of the events which have taken place in Gaza and the West Bank over the past two years. It was seconded by his party colleague Gerry McMonagle.

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“As unspeakable horror in the United Nations commission of inquiry in Gaza is unfolding, people everywhere should be using their voice,” he told Donegal County Council. “That includes us. This council needs to abhor and condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Israeli military operations in the West Bank. We call on the Irish Government to lobby for international sanctions on Israel; call on the Government once again to pass the Occupied Territories Bill in full.”

The United Nations commission of inquiry has been investigating the events on and since October 7 2023 concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

“These are not random, they were carried out with clear genocidal intent with a clear intent to destroy the Palestinians,” Cllr Doherty added. “Israel has continually ignored the International Court of Justice and persisted with campaign for two years. This is a Holocaust and western governments, the UK, US and Germany continued to provide military support.”

Cllr Doherty called on Ireland to put pressure on footballing bodies Fifa and Uefa, as well as the International Olympic Committee, to ban Israel, as it did with South Africa during apartheid and Russia for their current war with Ukraine.

The Israeli drone attacks on the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of civilian boats carrying parliamentarians, lawyers and activists attempting to bring aid to Gaza, shows the flagrance of Israel.

“It will be our eternal shame as a nation if we don't fight against this man made famine,” Cllr Doherty added. “We have a duty to speak out. Silence is complicity, we’ve said never again before. Now it must be stopped.”

Cllr Doherty’s motion asked the council to write to Bani Zeid, a municipality in the West Bank that is twinned with Donegal, expressing the strong support and solidarity of the people of Donegal for the people of Palestine. Cllr McMonagle added that the West Bank is “Israel’s next objective because they want the land.”

“We’ve watched it unfold and we can see what Israel is doing,” he said. “Their aim is to obliterate them and to take their land. [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu has been found guilty of genocide and there’s an international warrant for his arrest, yet he’s allowed to go to the United Nations in New York to blag and bloat. This cannot be tolerated.

“They’re killing doctors and nurses, reporters, mothers, fathers and children. There is complicity in the European Union, and Ireland has finally got a bit of backbone. Israel needs to be punished, and this so-called free world, with Donald Trump - he’s just passing through life and should not be allowed to get away with it. The world needs to stand up against Israel should not be allowed to participate in normal activity; it’s a rogue state. We need to be the drivers of this in Europe. Here, it’s incredibly important we use our voices and we must continue to do so to our government. ”