Above Photo: From maannews.com
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Irish parliament is expected to pass a landmark bill prohibiting the importation and sale of goods and services originating in illegal Israeli settlements on Wednesday.
This bill could potentially set a new precedent within the European Union.
The Control of Economic Activities (occupied territories) Bill 2018 seeks to prohibit the import and sale of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.
The proposed bill was slammed as being “immoral” by the Embassy of Israel in Dublin.
The Embassy of Israel posted on their Facebook page, entitled as “Israel in Ireland”, saying that a bill that promotes any type of boycott should be rejected since it “rather empowers the Hamas ‘terrorists’ as well as those Palestinians who refuse to come to the negotiating table.“
Currently, Ireland is importing a variety of products from illegal Israeli settlements, including fruits and vegetables, wine, plastics, and beauty products from, such as products of the “Ahava” beauty products company.
All of these imported products are already labeled as products produced in illegal Israeli settlements under the 2015 EU labeling regulations; this allowed Irish and EU consumers to make an informed choice when buying.
Israeli settlements in both the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights are illegal and constitute a war crime under both the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).