EU-Israel Association Agreement: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel I do not object to any of the contents of this motion. In fact, it provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the litany of egregious actions and human rights violations being perpetrated by the Israeli state. However, it leaves me a bit bewildered as to why the Government has been dragged, kicking and screaming, by the public and the Opposition to have additional meaningful action beyond words on Palestine. That statement will upset people. We hear often from the Taoiseach that no one has a monopoly on empathy. I agree with him, in principle, but we cannot rely on the fact that Ireland was the third country in Europe and the 142nd country in the world to recognise the State of Palestine as our only action or as the most amazing thing we have ever done. While that was important and other countries followed, critically, it did not change any of the facts on the ground. Gaza remained rubble and continued to be bombed to bits after we recognised the State of Palestine and the encroachments and violent settler attacks increased in the West Bank. Recognition did not change the facts on the ground for the Palestinian people. I welcome that we have had movement on the occupied territories Bill this week. It is, however, a watered-down husk of a Bill compared to Senator Black's original Bill. It only came after the public outcry at the videoed scenes of the mistreatment of our citizens and sneers from far-right extremist Ben-Gvir, who is by no means the only person with that attitude in the Israeli Government. That only happened when it was recorded. As we have heard already, these violations and attacks on our citizens on the flotilla have happened many times previously. Other than the 70,000 people killed in Gaza, including children, we have heard reports of Palestinian detainees being subjected to rape, sexual violence and extreme violence. The utterly egregious death penalty Bill, which I recognise the motion references, is apartheid legislation. It is the first time in history that a state has reintroduced the death penalty. It is a completely regressive action directed against only one type of person, Palestinians. The E1 plan, which is now moving at pace, will result in the annexation of large parts of the West Bank, making life unbearable for the people living there. The intention is to expand the Israeli state beyond internationally agreed lines and make life absolutely unbearable. We heard from the director of Al-Haq this morning in the audiovisual room that a journey to see his mother, which should take him one hour as the crow flies, takes him over six hours. Such is the architecture of oppression being placed on the Palestinian people by the apartheid Israeli state. I welcome the widespread commitment to the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The Social Democrats have been calling for this since November 2023, but Ireland should have been calling for this years ago. The fact is, as everyone in this room knows, suspension of the agreement still requires unanimity from all 27 member states, and we know how unlikely that is. The motion's focus on collective EU action glaringly fails to acknowledge that collective action is, quite frankly, practically impossible. The motion fails to highlight our own national responsibilities under international law. EU collective action must not preclude us from taking individual domestic action at a national level, particularly in the face of EU intransigence on this issue. The International Court of Justice, ICJ, advisory opinion from July 2024 was not about collective action by the EU. That is not what it said. It said that every member state, as individual states, has responsibilities not to support the continuation of the illegal settlements and it advised a ban on trade. Under international law, there is no distinction in what the concepts of trade are - trade is trade, in goods and services. The ICJ actually referred to trade and investment. Investment would be the next step. We are calling for the occupied territories Bill in its entirety, , to be passed. The Government has been happy to hide to behind the guise of this need or preference for collective action. Without a doubt, it would obviously be better if every country in the world acted, but that should not stop us from taking individual action and being leaders. The Spanish Government has included a ban on the advertising of services. That goes a step further than our Bill does. A ban on the advertising of services in practice means a ban on services. That is how it manifests in the practicality of the implementation of that legislation. Rather than having legislation of the depth of the Spanish legislation, we are one under them. We are not even meeting the legislation that has already been introduced. The Spanish have not been subject to any legal action by the Commission for adopting its own legislation vis-à-vis trade. They have not received any retaliatory action from the US. The bar has been set and I do not know why we are aiming to go lower rather than higher. Why are we not showing greater ambition as regards what could be done? All of this is just the bare minimum. We should and must stop Israel from accessing Horizon funding. Its institutions are accessing millions of euro in funding. Stopping that would be another step. That only needs a qualified majority at Europe, not unanimity among member states. All of the actions that only need a qualified majority must be on the table and we must push for them. I cannot understand why we are hollowing out the occupied territories Bill against the advice of the foreign affairs committee. What is the point in the parliamentary process? What is the point of committees agreeing something on a unanimous basis? We have not heard the Attorney General's advice. We have not had any credible response from the Government on what the legal impediment is to the inclusion of services, which makes me believe there is no legal impediment. In fact, the foreign affairs committee heard that there was a clear legal pathway to the inclusion of services. That is why we will continue advocating for that. I know we are talking today not about the occupied territories Bill but about what action can be taken on Gaza. We will include that in amendments on the occupied territories Bill when it reaches the floor of the House. --- 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/2026-05-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-28