Sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers guilty of targeting Palestinians in the West Bank should go further than travel bans if the violence persists, the Tánaiste has said.
The US and UK have already announced that they will ban such extremist settlers from entering their countries while EU leaders are set to consider similar proposals.
It comes after an upsurge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Palestinians living in the area have accused Jewish settlers of using the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza as a pretence to seize more land and engage in violence in the West Bank.
At his end of year media briefing, Micheál Martin was asked whether sanctions should go further than visa bans and whether Israel should be forced to pay for the damage committed by settlers.
“We are part of the West Bank consortium (group of EU states and the UK) which is endeavouring to put pressure on Israel to pay for damage to any EU funded infrastructure and most recently there was a school that was funded by Irish Aid that was very badly damaged by Israeli forces,” he said.
“We believe what’s happening in the West Bank is shocking, it’s in violation of UN resolutions and in violation of international humanitarian law and we’ve made it clear consistently at UN and other levels that this has to stop now.
“Yes, I think sanctions should go beyond travel bans if this persists. Israel is saying it’s a small minority but the evidence is that the action of settlers has been backed up by the IDF on the ground with Palestinians being attacked and various communities being displaced.
“The issue fundamentally is if we are to have any chance of a contiguous Palestinian state the action of the settlers has to stop, particularly with the far right, very religious fundamentalist settlers who almost believe that the biblical reality is this is all of their land and they can displace anybody in their way, that has to stop and the Israeli government has a responsibility to stop that.”
