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Palestine campaigners welcome Dublin City Council motion calling for end to attacks on Gaza and for arms embargo & trade sanctions on Israel

July 18, 2014
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The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) today welcomed Dublin City Council’s unanimous passing of a motion calling for an end to both the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza in which at least 184 Palestinian have been killed and the Israeli-imposed illegal siege of the coastal strip, as well as calling upon the Irish government to push for an arms embargo and trade sanctions on Israel.  The motion also condemned the use of Administrative Detention, a form of internment without trial, by the Israeli state.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) today welcomed Dublin City Council’s unanimous passing of a motion calling for an end to both the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza in which at least 184 Palestinian have been killed and the Israeli-imposed illegal siege of the coastal strip, as well as calling upon the Irish government to push for an arms embargo and trade sanctions on Israel. The motion also condemned the use of Administrative Detention, a form of internment without trial, by the Israeli state. The full text of the motion is below.

IPSC Chairperson Martin O’Quigley welcomed the resolution saying, “This motion is timely and necessary. As Israeli unleashes its third attack on the captive population of 1.8 million Palestinian people in Gaza in under six years, once again committing gross violations of international law, it continues to evade sanction. Motions such as this one, which listen to the call from Palestinian civil society for sanctions on the Israeli state, are to be welcomed and celebrated. The international impunity gifted to Israel emboldens that state to continue carrying out atrocities. By calling specifically for Israel’s suspension from the Euro-Med agreement which grants it trading privileges with Europe, and for an arms embargo, Dublin City Council has taken a very welcome step towards helping end that impunity.”  

Mr. O’Quigley continued, stating that “we are pleased to see the council also takes a strong stand against the practice of Administrative Detention, or indefinite internment without trial, both recognising its illegality under international law, including the Geneva Conventions, and calling for its immediate cessation. The varied methods of Israeli oppression, from collective punishment to internment to assassinations to home demolitions, form parts of a whole system of brutal structural violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people by an Apartheid state that seeks only to colonise land and crush all forms of resistance to that colonisation.”  

Mr O’Quigley concluded by pointing out that “what is particularly important about this motion is that it mandates city councillors to follow up with the Irish government in relation to its demands. The IPSC congratulates Dublin City Council for unanimously adopting this principled position with regard to ongoing Israeli crimes and human rights abuses, and in particular thanks Councillor Tina McVeigh for moving the motion.”  

Cllr. Tina McVeigh, who tabled the motion, said, “Israel's acts of mass violence against the Palestinian people are always the subject of great public and moral outrage, condemned by many democratically elected institutions, however, Israel is never held to account. This motion is important as it condemns Israel's perpetual use of illegal activities such as Administrative Detention and collective punishment, while calling on the Irish government to take concrete action. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, including in Ireland, have taken to the streets demanding an end to the reign of terror, the siege and for sanctions to be imposed on Israel.”  

FULL TEXT OF THE MOTION (Proposed by Cllr. Tina Veigh – People Before Profit Alliance)  

Dublin City Council  

- Recognizing that this is the third massive attack on largely defenceless civilian population of 1.8 million people in 5 and half years in which 162 Palestinians have been killed, of whom 137 are civilians, including 34 children and 28 women, and 1,058 others wounded, mostly civilians, including 332 children and 212 women;

- Noting that at least 125 Palestinian political prisoners were on hunger strike for over 60 days in Israeli prisons in protest at their conditions and the occupation's use of Administrative Detention orders to imprison Palestinians;

- Recognising that Administrative Detention is a form of internment "without charge or trial for periods of up to six months, which can be renewed repeatedly";

- Noting that Israeli Administrative Detention violates international laws including the Geneva Convention and that Amnesty has said that the policy “violates the right to a fair trial”, has been used "to trample on the human rights of detainees for decades", and is used to “suppress the legitimate and peaceful activities of activists";

- Noting that Amnesty says many prisoners "have suffered torture and other ill-treatment during interrogation, as well as during their detention, sometimes as punishment for hunger strikes or other protests", and that the Israeli government is trying to implement legislation that will allow force feeding of hunger strikers, a practice condemned by the World Medical Association;

- Noting that Amnesty has said that "Israel must release all Palestinians held under long-standing administrative detention laws or charge and try them promptly and fairly";

- Recognising that a fair trial is unlikely under the Israeli military court system which has a 99.74% conviction rate for Palestinians, and which Amnesty has said does "not meet international standards for fair trial";  

This Council  

- Expresses a message of solidarity to those Palestinian political prisoners currently held under Administrative Detention;

- Condemns, and calls for the immediate end of, the use of Administrative Detention by Israeli occupation forces and the immediate and unconditional release of all such detainees;

- Condemns any measure that will allow the force-feeding of hunger strikers;

- Calls upon the Irish government to make the same demands, and to use it’s influence to condemn the current imposition of collective punishment upon the protected people of Palestine by the Israeli state.

- Calls for an immediate end to Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza as a vital precondition to a lasting ceasefire agreement;

- Reiterates our 2010 call for an end to the illegal Israeli-imposed siege of Gaza;

- Reiterates our 2010 call for the EU to suspend Israel from the Euro-Med preferential trade agreement, Article 2 of which state that the "provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement";

- Joins the international call from Palestinian civil society and human rights organisations like Amnesty International for an arms embargo of Israel;

- Commits to send a delegation from DCC of the Lord Mayor and Councillors to meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to encourage the Irish government to take concrete and immediate action in relation to the above.

July 18, 2014
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