Dáil to vote on withdrawing Israeli ambassador diplomatic status

The Dáil will vote this week on withdrawing the diplomatic status of the Israeli ambassador to Ireland.

The motion, put forward by the Social Democrats, will be debated on Wednesday.

In a statement, party leader Holly Cairns said “our motion calls on the Irish Government to lobby for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the grounds that the human rights clause in the trade deal has been seriously breached.”

“The EU should also suspend Israel’s access to the €95 billion Horizon Europe fund for research and innovation.”

“Given Israel’s failure to cease the deliberate targeting of civilians, journalists, UN staff and healthcare workers, the Government must withdraw the diplomatic status of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland.”

Party spokesperson on foreign affairs, Gary Gannon, will also lobby Government to apply pressure at an EU level to impose economic sanctions on Israel.

People Before Profit have praised the move and said they will support the motion, while Sinn Féin and Labour are expected to do the same.

Opposition parties in the Dáil take it in turns to introduce motions that all TDs vote on, with People Before Profit stating they will use their slot to introduce a vote that would call for the expulsion of the Israel ambassador Dana Erlich.

Sinn Féin are introducing a similar vote on Wednesday that looks to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court, which was mentioned at the party’s Ard Fheis over the weekend.

There are no indications if the coalition will instill party discipline and force a whip on Social Democrats’ or Sinn Féin’s motion, or introduce a countermotion.

Government most likely vote against the motions following An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying in recent weeks his Government has no plans to expel the Israeli ambassador and stressing the importance of keeping an open line of communication between Ireland and Israel.

Last week, a vote to fly the flag of Palestine above City Hall in Dublin failed despite the vote gaining a majority of those present.

On that occasion, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors abstained from the motion.

As that motion was an emergency motion, it needed a two-thirds majority of the councillors present to pass, but with the parties abstaining, the vote did not reach that threshold.