Middle East Issues
Seanad Éireann — 2024-05-21
============================================================

Joe O'Brien (GP), Dublin Fingal

Absolutely, I will follow up on it. My understanding through a conversation less than an hour ago is that no formal application has been received.
I wish to take the opportunity as well to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to the International Criminal Court. I welcome the decision by the chief prosecutor to pursue arrest warrants. We also hold steadfast in our commitment to recognise the Palestinian state and we are currently co-ordinating with our partners on the most appropriate and impactful date in which that will happen.
I also wish to take the opportunity to bring attention to the fact that the EU Commission still needs to respond to the request of former Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and the Spanish Prime Minister that the EU-Israel association agreement is reviewed in light of the severe, widespread and ongoing human rights concerns in Gaza.
We believe in Europe and its institutions but the institutions are, frankly, only as responsive as their leaders. President von der Leyen is doing a disservice to the EU, in my view, by failing to respond and to recognise the human rights clause in the EU-Israel association agreement.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2024-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-05-21