{"id":114257,"date":"2026-05-14T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114257\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:26:08","slug":"government-urged-to-impose-sanctions-on-israel-in-same-way-de-valera-did-on-italy-in-1935-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/114257\/","title":{"rendered":"Government urged to impose sanctions on Israel in same way De Valera did on Italy in 1935 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government<\/a> should impose sanctions on Israel<\/a> in the same way \u00c9amon de Valera<\/a> did on Italy in 1935 for a \u201cgenocidal assault which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ethiopians\u201d.<\/p>\n

People Before Profit<\/a> leader Richard Boyd Barrett<\/a> made the call as he cited the late former taoiseach and Italy\u2019s imperialist invasion as he introduced his party\u2019s Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill, which calls for Ireland to \u201cbreak off all economic trade, financial relations with the state of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

De Valera \u201cfelt it was Ireland\u2019s duty as a former colony to impose sanctions on Italy for committing genocide against people in Africa. Surely the Irish Government\u201d could do the same and \u201cimpose sanctions on the genocidal state of Israel,\u201d he said in the D\u00e1il<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He spoke of his experience in Israel when he went there as an 18-year-old and \u201cliterally stumbled on the first Palestinian intifada and I was horrified\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the time there was \u201cno armed resistance by Palestinians\u201d who were living in refugee camps all their lives, members of families who had been driven out in 1948, he said.<\/p>\n

The worst violence they were committing was throwing stones at the \u201cfourth most powerful military in the world. And they were brutally shot down, beaten down.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmed resistance, the development of Hamas<\/a>,\u201d did not happen for years after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an obligation under the [United Nations<\/a>] genocide convention\u201d and commitments to international law and human rights, \u201cto impose sanctions on the state of Israel, because it is in violation of those legal commitments\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe Israel is guilty of genocide, of ethnic cleansing, of collective punishment of the Palestinian people and the systematic, ongoing for decades, violation of the most basic human and civil rights of the Palestinian people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett, along with politicians and pro-Palestine supporters outside Leinster House on Thursday in advance of the D\u00e1il debate on the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Boyd Barrett said: \u201cWe are obliged morally and legally to impose sanctions and we need to end the treatment of Israel as a normal state and recognise it is a rogue state.\u201d<\/p>\n

His party colleague Paul Murphy<\/a> called on the Government to give TDs a free vote given the free vote on a Social Democrats<\/a> abortion<\/a> reform Bill on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the issues of conscience in the world, you should allow your own backbench TDs to decide if they want to do something to stop this genocide,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> said, however, she could not support the legislation.<\/p>\n

The Bill \u201cwould amount to a blanket prohibition and trade in all goods and certain services between Ireland and Israel\u201d, without any exemptions or derogations.<\/p>\n

It \u201camounts to a boycott, divestment and sanctions approach with respect to Israel. The Government does not support that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland does not operate a \u201cunilateral domestic sanctions regime\u201d but implements European Union<\/a> and UN sanctions, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s well understood that EU sanctions are designed carefully to avoid, to mitigate unintended consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Minister said: \u201cThe strongest and most impactful route remains co-ordination at EU level, particularly in relation to the Israeli settlements and trade connected to the occupied Palestinian territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is where \u201cIreland has and will show leadership\u201d. This week EU member states reached political agreement to sanction Israeli extremist settlers and those enabling violence in the West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The State has also campaigned intensely for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, she said. <\/p>\n

Labour<\/a> justice spokesman Duncan Smith<\/a> said, however, Ireland was now \u201cbecoming a laggard in terms of our support\u201d.<\/p>\n

He hit out at the Government\u2019s failure to act on its promise to implement the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> preventing trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n

Smith said Spain<\/a> and Slovenia had delivered on this and had \u201cmoved ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the threshold for action on Israel?\u201d, when more than 75,000 people have died in Gaza<\/a> in the last three years, 2,800 in Lebanon since March, and more than 1,000 in the West Bank with the continued expansion of illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD M\u00e1ire Devine said Friday would be the 78th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. She said the displacement was \u201ccontinuous and ongoing\u201d and \u201c66 per cent of the Palestinian people are refugees\u201d after \u201cthree years of genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

TDs will vote on the legislation next Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government should impose sanctions on Israel in the same way \u00c9amon de Valera did on Italy in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[12422,39486,3996,39484,1092,394,1411,2056,37,3994,17110,3997,3995,39485,3993,39487,1218,6806,6905],"class_list":["post-114257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-abortion","tag-dail-eireann","tag-duncan-smith","tag-eamon-de-valera","tag-european-union","tag-government","tag-hamas","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-israel","tag-labour-party","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-paul-murphy","tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","tag-richard-boyd-barrett","tag-sinn-fein","tag-social-democrats","tag-spain","tag-united-nations-un","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116575048992470912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}