“Too politically sensitive for a bus shelter”: Ó Ríordáin launches the Gaza campaign advertisers wouldn’t run
"Too politically sensitive for a bus shelter": Ó Ríordáin launches the Gaza campaign advertisers wouldn't run - The Labour Party
Dublin Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin today launched a campaign calling on the EU to end its preferential trade with Israel by scrapping the €45 billion EU-Israel Association Agreement. Outside Leinster House, he will unveil the billboard that multiple Dublin advertising companies refused to display, deeming it “too politically sensitive.” He will be joined by Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD and members of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP said:
“EU leaders are gathering in Dublin over the coming weeks, and they need to hear how Dubliners feel. We will not accept genocide going unanswered. The European Union was built as a peace project. Rewarding Israel with preferential trade while Gaza is reduced to rubble flies in the face of everything the EU claims to stand for.
“Banning trade with the settlements has rightly made headlines through the Occupied Territories Bill. Of course we shouldn’t be trading in goods or services from illegal settlements. But that is a drop in the ocean compared to the trade the EU does with Israel every single day under the Association Agreement.
“The agreement is clear. Article 2 says the whole relationship rests on respect for human rights and democratic principles, and calls this an ‘essential element’ of the deal. Article 79 allows the EU to take action when that condition is broken. UN investigators have found acts of genocide. If that doesn’t breach Article 2, nothing ever will.
“This campaign nearly never saw a Dublin street, after multiple advertising companies refused to run it. We found another way because we refuse to be silent on this issue.
“Ireland holds the EU Presidency. EU Trade Ministers meet on 22–23 October. The message from Dublin is simple: stop rewarding Israel. Scrap the agreement.”