Call for discussion on suspending the EU-Israel agreement

Ireland has stepped up pressure on Brussels after the detention of EU citizens aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, with the Taoiseach urging European leaders to confront Israel’s actions at next month’s summit.

Micheál Martin has written to European Council President António Costa calling for Israel’s treatment of the group to be discussed by EU leaders, and saying they should examine whether all or part of the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended over what he described as the illegal detention of EU citizens by the Israeli Defence Forces in international waters.

Organisers say at least 12 Irish citizens were among those detained on the flotilla, along with hundreds of other participants from a range of countries.

A video posted on social media shows Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, walking among some of the detainees and saying they should be kept in prison for a long time.

Israeli minister posts video taunting detainees

Calling the treatment of those aboard the vessel shocking, the Taoiseach said a business-as-usual approach in dealings with Israel could no longer stand.

A draft of the letter, seen by RTÉ News, describes Mr Ben Gvir’s conduct as “unacceptable” and says the activists’ treatment is the latest in a wider pattern that, in Mr Martin’s view, reflects Israel’s growing disregard for international norms and its failure to uphold its obligations under international law.

The Taoiseach said that, seven months after a ceasefire, people in Gaza were still living in appalling conditions and enduring an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

He said the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, coupled with settlers acting with impunity while inflicting extreme violence on Palestinian communities, amounted to a deliberate effort to erode the viability of a two-state solution.

Mr Martin also pointed to Israeli plans to introduce the death penalty for Palestinians tried in Israeli military courts on accusations of killing Israelis, as well as an increase in violence against and harassment of Christian communities in Jerusalem.

He wrote that these developments, together with attacks on south Lebanon, including on UNIFIL peacekeepers, were fundamentally incompatible with the EU’s core principles and values.

He urged President Costa, who represents the bloc’s 27 leaders and chairs its regular summits, to place the matter on the agenda for the Brussels meeting on 18 and 19 June.

Last week, EU foreign ministers unanimously agreed to sanction a number of violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank, while the European Commission is also preparing measures to curb trade in goods originating from those settlements.

The Taoiseach is expected to raise the matter when he meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace tomorrow, during his tour of European capitals ahead of Ireland taking over the EU presidency on 1 July.

Mr Martin will then travel to Rome, where he is due to meet Pope Leo XIV and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

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