Settlement-boycotting parties win big in Irish election
One of those three parties was Sinn Féin, the political arm of the former Irish Republican Army, which has long held anti-Israel positions.
By LAHAV HARKOVRevava - An Orthodox Jewish Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Located between Barkan and Karnei Shomron. Revava, Oct 23, 2018(photo credit: HILLEL MAEIR/TPS)
Two parties that support criminalizing the purchase of goods or services from Israeli businesses in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Golan Heights were among the three nearly tied at the top as exit polls came in from Ireland’s parliamentary election overnight Saturday.One of those three parties was Sinn Féin, the political arm of the former Irish Republican Army, which has long held anti-Israel positions.Sinn Féin Reached 22.3% of the vote for the Daíl, Ireland’s lower house of parliament, the highest share of the national vote it has ever received, according to exit polls.Fine Gael, the party of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar received 22.4% and Fianna Fáil got 22.2%Both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, a more centrist party, said ahead of the election that they support the bill to criminalize doing business with Israelis from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Golan Heights.Sinn Féin‘s election platform said it will “ban goods from Israel’s illegal colonial settlements in Palestine from entering the Irish market by implementing the Occupied Territories Bill.”Fianna Fáil said it will “progress the Occupied Territories Bill.”Fine Gael opposed the bill when it came to a vote in early 2019, and the government argued that the bill was in contravention of EU trade rules and that Ireland would incur major fines should it become law.The bill has passed several votes in the Daíl and Ireland’s Senate, the Seanad, and can be picked up where legislators left off after the election.If the Irish bill becomes law, it could fine merchants in Ireland that sell products from the West Bank, Golan Heights or east Jerusalem for up to 250,000 euros, or sentence them to up to five years in jail.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein canceled a delegation of MKs to Ireland last year, after one of the votes, saying: “The law to boycott Judea and Samaria has serious repercussions for relations between the countries...We are happy to take the time to go to a country that wants to cooperate with all of Israel and not just parts of it, instead of wasting our time in a country that obsessively looks for ways to hurt us.”In Sinn Féin‘s UK arm, its seven MPs were among the only ones who refused to sign on to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, Jewish News reported last month. Sinn Féin‘s Northern Irish MPs boycott the UK parliament, as a rule.
