'Ireland must change how it trades with Israel and provides aid to Palestine'
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland is continuing to push for a 'humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza. Picture:: Eamonn Farrell
How Ireland trades with Israel and provides aid to Palestine will have to change in future, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking during leaders’ questions on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar said Ireland is continuing to push for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, to allow for key aid like food, fuel, and medicine to enter the enclave.
Asked by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald if the Government would call for sanctions to be levelled against Israel, Mr Varadkar said that such actions should only be taken alongside other EU countries.
“In terms of further sanctions. I'm strongly of the view that they can only happen on a multilateral basis,” he said.
“The whole point of imposing sanctions, and we have imposed sanctions on many countries for different reasons, is that they do more harm to the country that's being sanctioned, than the country imposing the sanctions and that's why they only work when they're done on a multilateral basis.
“We’re nowhere near that point yet at European level or at international level.”
However, Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that, in the wake of the Israeli-Hamas war, Ireland did need to examine in the future how it trades with Israel and how it provides aid to Palestine.
“We can't continue to aid Palestine, and trade with Israel in the way we have done in the past. That's going to have to change in some way.”
