Richard Boyd Barrett TD for the People Before Profit Alliance has said that the failure of the EU and US to impose sanctions on Israel in response to its “murderous” assault on Gaza, “exposes the utter moral bankruptcy of the western powers.”
Deputy Boyd Barrett contrasted the speed with which the EU and US imposed sanctions on Russia for its activities in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine with its refusal to impose any sanctions on Israel – despite “its utterly barbaric assault on the people of Gaza” and its “systematic, on-going persecution of the Palestinian people and weekly theft of ever more Palestinian land through the expansion of illegal settlements.” Deputy Boyd Barrett called on the Irish government to impose immediate sanctions on Israel by expelling the Israeli ambassador and ceasing all trade with Israel until the Gaza assault ends.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said: “Once again, Israel is engaged in a criminal and murderous military assault against the people of Gaza – deliberately slaughtering men, women and children in an act of collective punishment against the Palestinian people that flies in the face of every standard of human rights and international law. Yet incredibly, the US and the EU stand idly by and allow Israel to inflict this massacre – imposing no sanctions, whatsoever. Indeed, far from sanctioning Israel for these atrocities and its on-going, systematic persecution of the Palestinian people and weekly theft of Palestinian land through the expansion of illegal settlements, the EU and US continue to give massive financial and military support to Israel. The moral bankruptcy and double standards of the western powers in allowing Israel to kill Palestinians with impunity without imposing any sanctions is utterly nauseating. Look how fast the EU and US imposed political and economic sanctions on Russia over its activities in Ukraine. Yet when Israel is engaged in the murder and collective punishment of hundreds of innocent men, women and children, they do absolutely nothing. If the EU or US had even a scintilla of moral decency and consistency informing their foreign policies, they would immediately impose economic and political sanctions on Israel and demand that they stop this barbaric military assault on Gaza. Equally, if the Irish government had any decency at all, they would act unilaterally where the EU has failed to act. The government should immediately expel the Israeli ambassador and cease all trade with Israel until massacre stops.”