Central Bank of Ireland confirms it will no longer approve sale of Israeli ‘war bonds’

What benefits have the Israelis had from ‘their governments and citizens illegal activities’?

Are you serious? The 700000 Israelis living in occupied territory? Israel’s confiscation of land, water, and other natural resources for the benefit of settlements and residents of Israel(a violation of the Hague convention). Israelis sit and watch this happen, year in year out, a lot say that they disagree with it but do absolutely nothing to rectify the situation. They hold neither the settlers themselves or the Israeli government accountable.

Israels illegal occupation in the West Bank alone has cost the Palestinian economy over $60billion since 2000. Israelis have no problem 'sanctioning' Palestinians.

If Israelis are all looking peace like we are told then I am sure they would be greatful for the international community putting pressure on their government to stop slaughtering people and stop stealing land(after all they are all supposedly against that). Weirdly enough though mention banning trade with illegal settlements and suddenly all the people who are soooo against them in the first place get all red faced and shouty almost like they aren't actually against them all.

Why? It was Israel who moved the bond approval process out of Ireland to Luxembourg.

No 100% I agree with you. I understand you weren’t saying that you wanted Israelis to die.
I was conflating boycotts and sanctions a bit there.

Normal Russians have been impacted. But the (EU) sanctions are specifically targeted in a way that makes it difficult for wealthy people in particular and makes it more difficult to fund the war. They have specific goals - they aren’t designed to inflict misery on the average Russian citizen. They also avoid inflicting pain on EU citizens. A lot of thought goes into them basically. I think boycotts themselves can be haphazard and what Israel exports to Ireland cannot easily be boycotted (parts of things)

Well done Ireland yet again

I'm so proud of my country 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Here we go again!!!

Total

Denial 😡😡😡😡😡

Why am I not surprised you’ve made a comparison with Russia, who are the aggressor in that war.

Why are you not suggesting the Hamas billionaires outside of Gaza have all their assets frozen, together with the bank accounts of Hamas/PIJ and any other terrorists inside Gaza?

Gazans seem to use banking apps to pay for the free aid so the money is going to someone at the end of the chain or shut down the currency traders the banking app money goes to.

Maybe that might focus their minds on surrender and releasing the hostages.

What benefits have the Israelis had from ‘their governments and citizens illegal activities’?

Not being murdered in a terrorist attack?

If I wanted Israelis to die I would be suggesting that countries band together and bomb the shit out them like their government has been doing to people under their watch. If sanctions meant Israelis needed aid I would be all for my government and others helping in feeding and providing healthcare to them through aid organisations like they are trying to do in Gaza, hopefully no governments would stand in the way and block that.

Nobody(but you) is talking about denying Israelis medicine, denying medicine is something the Israeli government does. I'm talking about Israelis suffering economically, that wouldn't trouble me at all.

'Normal' Russians have suffered economically and culturally due to sanctions not just the uber rich. PayPal for instance stopped Russians from using their service, loads and loads of small business who sell internationally have suffered because of that and seemingly, if people think just the uber wealthy were effected, people don't just not care about it they don't even know about it.

Sorry I'm typing while distracted. I understand that PayPal is not a governmwnt sanction but I would support companies doing similar to Israeli citizens. I think financially inconveniencing people into action would be a positive move. For too long Israelis have sat on their hands and not just ignored but had benefit from their governments and citizens illegal activities. If money will make them wake up and say enough is enough then I'm all for it.

I mean you say that. But ultimately if people were dying in Israel because they couldn’t import a specific medicine, you probably wouldn’t stand over it? Right?

I think sanctions should be targeted with a specific goal in mind- like with Russia, they specifically target the trappings of the uber wealthy (among other sanctions) like yachts. They don’t target food items that will only impact joe soap

Does that include punishing the Israeli population? How do blanket boycotts and disinvestment differ from collective punishment?

The person I was responding apparently thinks punishing the Israeli pooulation is a positive development.

It’s hard to say without more detail. I would prefer if trade sanctions targeted the Afghan regime and its leaders and minimised the impact on ordinary people.

I think there should be trade sanctions on Israel but again these should be targeted starting with activities that impact the war or the occupation. I wouldn’t agree with a country being completely isolated from world trade as it would cause much suffering among the population esp with regard to medical items/food ect… I don’t agree with these generalised boycotts.

From the same article - you really see supporting Afghanistan which operates gender apartheid as 'a positive sign of change?

All they have done is switch to buying things from countries with appalling human rights records! Way to go!

'While Israeli trade has dipped because of human rights concerns, imports have surged from other countries run by authoritarian regimes.
Goods arriving from Taliban-run Afghanistan, which is the only country in the world that explicitly bans women’s secondary education, climbed 45pc year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Syrian exports to Britain more than doubled with a 120pc rise in consignments of olives, olive oil and dried coffee – despite ongoing sanctions and concerns over the new regime.'

@MoreCraicPlease - also it wasn’t even initiated by the central bank. They were let off the hook there by Israel moving.

It is very true about Ireland being reliant on US companies. The US is already threatening Ireland over the Occupied Territories Bill and enacting it will likely cause some economic damage. But even if we wished to ban all trade with Israel, as an EU state, that would not be possible.

Ireland and Israel both depend on US patronage - Ireland because of the favourable tax regime that encouraged major US corporations to set up their European businesses there which drives a significant proportion of the GDP, and Israel for weapons.
It’s therefore not practical to boycott Israel in Ireland given the profits from tech and pharmaceuticals passing through the country.
The government will be pleased with this even if Israel initiated it but they had no hand in it as the Central Bank is independent.

Seems like Irish people were misled by their media if they think that the change from Ireland to Luxembourg was instigated by the Irish central bank.

As it says in the article, The Irish central bank had consistently said it is legally obliged to approve any prospectus once the relevant conditions are met.

The truth is that Israel moved their EU bond prospectus approval to Luxembourg.

Israel moves bond approval process out of Ireland as Dublin pushes to reject ties

Israel has moved the process of securing EU approval for its Diaspora bond prospectus from Ireland to Luxembourg amid increasing opposition in Dublin to its central bank’s role in approving the program on behalf of the European Union.

Non-EU countries must choose one EU member state to apply to for approval of a prospectus where securities are traded in the EU and Ireland’s central bank had been asked to approve Israel’s Diaspora bond program each year since 2021.

A joint committee of Irish lawmakers recommended in August that the government seek to amend EU regulations so as to allow each individual European central bank to refuse to act as the competent authority for such bond prospectuses.

The Irish central bank had consistently said it is legally obliged to approve any prospectus once the relevant conditions are met.

In a letter to a lawmaker published by the central bank, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said the approval for Israel’s program would be transferred to Luxembourg upon the expiry of the prior year’s prospectus on Monday.

Israel’s Finance Ministry did not immediately comment on the reasons for moving its EU bond prospectus approval.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-moves-bond-approval-process-out-of-ireland-as-dublin-pushes-to-reject-ties/

Economic action has to be taken on an EU level. We can’t do that. However the Occupied Territories Bill is well supported. I’m not sure everyone is “dedicated” Most people are just trying to live their normal lives. They just don’t agree with what’s happening.

The pro Palestinian movement itself generally has focused on stopping activities that we do that directly support the genocide- weapons traveling through our air space, the war bonds, trade with the occupied territories. It hasn’t generally been targeting other activities that Ireland does with Israel. There has been no call to cancel visas or anything like that.

Im just going by the comments on this board about how dedicated the Irish are to the Palestinian cause and how importantt it is to take economic action. Apparently not. Interesting

I very much doubt that a majority of Irish people are boycotting Israeli products. The Irish government itself certainly wants to maintain trade and diplomatic links with Israel. They are coming under pressure from the Irish population to act now. But the majority of the Irish population is pro a two state solution, so not anti Israel just anti what Israel is doing and pro a Palestinian state.

I think it is hard to understand if you are coming from the mindset that being against genocide is anti semitism. Some people seem to think that a pro Palestinian position is anti Israel and pro terrorism. And hearing people say that is something Irish people have a deep awareness of. Being pro a united Ireland used to be conflated with being pro terrorism. We’ve heard it all before.