Members of the main Opposition parties have combined for a second time to put pressure on the State to stop facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds through the Central Bank.
A fortnight after the defeat in the Dáil of a Sinn Féin Bill to prevent the Central Bank’s role in approving Israeli bonds for sale in the European Union, the Social Democrats have tabled a private members’ motion calling for the exact same measures.
The Central Bank of Ireland has a role in approving documents on bonds issued by the Israeli government, which have been described as “war bonds” by the Opposition. The Bill would have prevented the Irish Central Bank from approving the prospectus that allows Israel to trade its bonds in the European Union.
Israel traditionally had its European bond prospectuses rubber-stamped in the UK, but turned to the Central Bank for authorisations after Brexit.
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Sinéad Gibney of the Social Democrats said the Government had insisted the State is not selling the bonds. She argued the fact remained that Ireland was “facilitating” the sale of bonds within Europe.
“Countries sell these bonds to raise money, and in the case of Israel, that money is being spent on bullets and on weapons to kill people, and that’s why we have to stop it,” she said.
Ms Gibney, Seán Crowe of Sinn Féin, Duncan Smith of Labour and Paul Murphy of People Before Profit all spoke against the bonds at a joint media conference by the four main Opposition parties on Monday, and argued that by facilitating their sale, Ireland became complicit in the Israeli war effort.
They said the Central Bank should have no role in approving the prospectus that allows Israel to trade its bonds in the European Union.
“What’s happening is these bonds are basically going toward blood money,” said Mr Crowe. “It’s buying the bullets, it’s buying the ammunition.”
He added: “Is there anyone in Ireland comfortable with the fact that we’re facilitating this blood money coming into our country and being spent on weapons that are killing men, women and children?”
Mr Murphy said that in the past day Israel had seized a boat carrying humanitarian aid from international waters and “kidnapped” activists, including Greta Thunberg.
He said the argument of the Government “boiled down to the fact that if they don’t authorise the bonds, someone else in Europe will authorise the bonds, and they’ll be able to be to be sold.
“We do not accept that we should be assisting in the sale of Israeli bonds used for genocide at all,” he said.
Mr Smith said that Ireland may be doing more than other European countries but the bar was so low, it was nowhere near enough.
“This motion could send a clear signal that Irish people do not stand for the selling of Israeli war bonds. We are asking for the Government to legislate, on an emergency basis, for the Central Bank to ban those sales.”
Ms Gibney said the Government had a very clear mandate of support for Palestine from the population.
“Other Member States have much more divided populations, much more gritty things to deal with in terms of getting people on board. The Irish Government has the mandate of the Irish people, and they should be leaders on this. And it is simply not good enough to say, ‘if we don’t do it, somebody else will’, because that is the absolute definition of complicity. If we stand up and stop this, other countries will follow suit.”
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said during the Dáil debate at the end of May that the Sinn Féin legislation was “unworkable” and inconsistent with EU law.
