MIDDLE EAST:MOTIONS CALLING for a boycott of Israel because of the actions of its armed forces in the Gaza Strip in late December and early January failed to secure a majority at the Labour Party conference and were referred back to the party executive.
Instead the conference approved a motion from the outgoing national executive committee calling for an international war crimes inquiry into actions of participants in the conflict.
A motion from the Howth branch advocated a boycott of Israeli goods because of what it called “the ongoing crimes against humanity by Israel against the Palestinian people”.
Delegates voted to refer this motion back to the party’s executive. Similar motions from the Trinity College and Fitzgerald Kearney (Dublin South-East) branches were also referred back, as was a motion to expel the Israeli Labor Party from the Socialist International.
Opposing those who favoured a boycott at this stage, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins said: “There is no difference between us in any element of principle or conviction, but perhaps only in relation to tactics. We must have an international investigation that is independent, on the issue of war crimes.”
The boycott issue needed to be “discussed strategically” and would be considered further at party executive level.
Sinéad Cleary from Dublin North-Central said she accepted Israel’s right to security but the response to the rocket attacks from Gaza was “wholly disproportionate”.
Senator Ivana Bacik said the UN representative in Gaza, Irishman John Ging, had spoken of “conditionality of friendship” and she added: “What we need is to see conditions placed on the European Union’s friendship with Israel”.
Deputy Joanna Tuffy said a boycott would hurt Israeli people as well as Irish people with relatives in Israel, and there were “a huge number of people in Ireland who work for Israeli-owned companies. If we want to support a peace process then the best way to do that is by being honest brokers.”
Michael Robinson, from the Northern Ireland Constituency Council, said evidence showed that Hamas was not firing rockets at Israel but trying to control those who were doing so.
Speaking to a motion in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, Proinsias de Rossa MEP said it had been suggested that having a second referendum was “in some way undemocratic” but he recalled that Labour campaigned for the second referendum which legalised divorce in Ireland.
European affairs spokesman Joe Costello TD said Labour had always supported the Lisbon Treaty and the “core reason” was the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Recalling last June’s vote, he added: “The defeat of the referendum was a significant blow to the legal enhancement of workers’ rights.”
The conference passed the motion, which welcomed the EU commitment to a commissioner from each member state, but regretted the “failure” of the Government to clarify the detail of guarantees given by Brussels.
