Ireland’s prime minister calls for EU review of trade agreement with Tel Aviv over top court opinion on Israeli occupation

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, said Wednesday that EU states are obligated to review an agreement defining union's trade relations with Israel in light of a recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice against Israel's unlawful occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory.

“The ICJ advisory opinion is a game changer,” Harris told reporters ahead of the first EU-Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Brussels referring to the top court by its initials.

“It now places an obligation on countries to do all they can to help end the unlawful, illegal (Israeli) occupation,” he said, calling a review of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel “entirely appropriate.”

Harris noted that Ireland’s government will receive formal advice from the attorney general next week to determine whether trade restrictions regarding the occupied Palestinian territories can be pursued under the obligations outlined by the court's opinion.

In July, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion concluding that Israel’s decades-long occupation and annexation of Palestinian land violates fundamental principles of International Humanitarian Law.

Harris also addressed recent attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, stressing that the 379 Irish personnel serving there are protected by international law.

“Israel needs to respect that, Hezbollah needs to respect that, and all of us need to speak with one voice. We have an absolute duty to protect our peacekeepers,” he said.

On Sunday, Israeli tanks reportedly forced entry into a UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) position, marking the latest in a series of incidents that have left several peacekeepers injured. During the summit, Harris said his top priority would be discussions on how to support peace efforts in the Middle East amid ongoing conflict.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing more than 1 million.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed nearly 42,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Israel expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.