Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Thursday for closing the Israeli Embassy in Dublin in response to the Irish Senate’s overwhelming vote in support of a proposal to boycott companies and imports of goods from the West Bank settlements a move that Israel warned Dublin not to implement in January.
“There is no point in summoning the Irish ambassador to Israel for a reprimand … We will not engage with Israel’s oppressors. Israel should close immediately its embassy in Dublin” Lieberman tweeted. “We won’t turn the other cheek to a country which boycotts us.”
As a result of the vote which passed with a majority of 25 to 20 on Wednesday the Irish ambassador was summoned to a meeting at the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s office.
If Ireland advances legislation and officially approves the proposal it will become the first country in the European Union to officially criminalize import of goods from the settlements.
According to the proposal all imports from “illegal settlements” including the Golan Heights and the West Bank could result in fines. The proposal’s initiator Senator Frances Black slammed Israeli settlements as “war crimes” and compared her initiative to Ireland’s anti-apartheid actions against South Africa.
Though these settlements are repeatedly condemned as illegal by the European Union United Nations and Irish Government they continue to extract valuable natural resources and agricultural produce” she said in an article written in the Irish Times entitled “Ireland must act against Israel’s war crimes.”
