Israeli Embassy in Ireland over boycott bill

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Thursday for Israel to shut down the Israeli Embbady in Dublin in response to the Irish Senate voting overwhelmingly to approve a proposal to boycott companies and imports of goods from the West Bank settlements, a move that Israel warned Dublin not to implement in January.

"There is no point in summoning the Irish ambbadador to Israel for reprimand …" "We will not engage with Israel's oppressors." Israel should close their embbady in Dublin, "Lieberman tweeted. "We will not turn to other countries that we boycotts."

Defense Minister Lieberman (Photo: Yair Sagi)

As a result of the vote, which pbaded with a majority of 25 to 20 on Wednesday, the Irish ambbadador was summoned to a meeting at the Israeli Foreign Ministry's office. If Ireland advances legislation and officially approves the proposal in the European Union to criminalize the importation of goods from the settlements.

According to the proposal, all imports from "illegal settlements", including the Golan Heights and the West Bank, could result in fines. The proposal's initiator, Senator Frances Black, slammed Israeli settlements as "war crimes" and compared her initiative to Ireland's anti-apartheid actions against South Africa.

These European Union, United Nations, and Irish Government, said they are continuing to extract their natural resources and agricultural products, "she said in an article written in the Irish Times entitled" Ireland must act against Israel's war crimes. "

Irish senator Frances Black with Palestinian farmer (Photo: AP)

Ultimately, trade in settlement goods sustains injustice. We can not say anything, we just have not worked. As long as we buy their produce and they will profit, nothing will change, "said Black, who won the support of all Irish political parties except the right-center party, Fine Gael, the largest in the country.

] Following the approval of the proposal, the Israeli Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the decision

(Photo: AP)

Emmanuel Nahshon, the ministry's spokesman, said that "the Irish Senate has given its hand to an aggressive, dangerous and radical populist anti-Israel boycott initiative that undermines prospects for a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The boycott will harm the livelihood of many Palestinians working in the Israeli industrial areas affected by the boycott, and will only deepen conflicts in the Middle East," said Nahshon.

For a third time this year, the Irish ambbadador, Alison Kelly, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry's office. In January, Kelly was summoned to the ministry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Although she made it clear that the bill was not an initiative of the BDS movement, Netanyahu said the proposal supports Israel.

Irish Ambbadador to Israel Alison Kelly

Kelly was also called to the ministry following the mayor of Dublin's participation in an anti-Israeli conference in Ramallah.

Chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat, welcomed the proposal, saying that "this is a historic and courageous gesture that conveys a clear message to the EU and to the international community as a whole" [19659002]

Erekat stressed that "it is not enough to talk about the two-state solution;"

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