Wexford council passes two motions in support of Palestine despite similar motion being rejected in the Dáil

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Wexford councillors have voiced their support for the people of Palestine via two motions which they hope will underline their opposition to the ongoing conflict in the region. At the June meeting of Wexford County Council (WCC), the Mayor of Wexford Councillor Catherine Biddy Walsh submitted a motion calling for the “immediate cancellation of the EU/Israel Trade Deal, the enactment of legislation to ban goods from Occupied Territories and the deployment of UN peacekeepers to protect and distribute humanitarian assistance.”

The motion was subsequently passed by her fellow councillors and will now be forwarded to Tánaiste, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris TD for consideration.

A second motion was jointly proposed by Cllrs Aoife Rose O’Brien and Leonard Kelly in which they voiced their “grave concern” that the Central Bank of Ireland is regulating the Israel Bonds Issuance Programme and, thereby, “facilitating the sale throughout Europe of bonds which are funding genocide in Gaza”.

Their motion stated that “the Central Bank is facilitating Israel to allow it to finance its war operations” and the bonds in question have, since 1951, financed “the apartheid system, the Israeli military and illegal settlements”.

Noting that, under international law, all institutions are under obligation to “prevent genocide and abuse of human rights”, Cllrs O'Brien and Kelly called upon the Central Bank of Ireland to “immediately end the regulation of the Israeli Bond Issuance Programme."

However, there was some resistance to this motion in the chamber, with suggestions that it was factually incorrect and that a similar motion had recently been rejected in the Dáil. In that instance, a motion to block Israeli war bonds was presented by the Social Democrats and supported by Sinn Féin, Labour, and People Before Profit.

The bill failed with 85 votes against and 71 in favour, upholding the government’s position.

Contesting the validity of Cllrs O’Brien and Kelly’s motion, Cllr Anthony Donohue said the Dáil motion had effectively failed because the bonds in question “don’t exist”. He was supported by Fine Gael party colleague, Cllr Bridín Murphy, who said Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue had been “very clear” in his insistence that the bonds don’t exist.

Opposing the motion, Cllr Donohue said, “I’m as disgusted by the genocide as anyone else, but why are we putting down a motion which doesn’t exist?”

Despite the protestations, the motion was passed by the council.