Statement by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on the EU-Israel Association Agreement

I very much welcome the substantive and important report of the EU’s High Representative for Human Rights on Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Bringing together the reports and analysis of serious, credible and reliable sources - including the International Court of Justice, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and others - it paints a clear and grim picture of a sustained and deliberate failure by Israel to adhere to its international obligations, especially in Gaza but also in the West Bank.

It highlights a continued restriction of food, medicines, medical equipment, and other vital supplies into Gaza that amount to collective punishment of the civilian population, that amounts to the use of starvation as a method of war.

It describes an unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians in Gaza resulting from indiscriminate attacks without proportion or precaution, as well as attacks on hospitals, forced mass displacements and the killing of journalists. All of this with a persistent lack of accountability.

In the West Bank, it reports sustained oppression of the Palestinian population, including through state and settler violence, the appropriation of land, and the use of detention as a form of collective punishment.

Ireland has long argued that clauses on human rights contained in the EU’s international agreement have to be respected, and that there must be serious consequences when they are not observed.

We will now work with partners to follow up on this important report with concrete steps, and I will be discussing it with my colleagues in the European Council when we meet next week.