Palestine at risk of “being wiped from the map,” warns Andrews

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews has warned that Palestine is at risk of being “wiped entirely from the map.”

Speaking in Paris before meeting French President Emmanuel Macron with fellow Renew MEPs, the Dublin MEP welcomed news that various world governments would be suspending imports of goods from the Israel-occupied West Bank.

Notably, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Westminster that Israeli settlers were carrying out “ethnic cleansing,” a stark departure from the tacit support shown by the Keir Starmer premiership.

Today, the British government announced a ban on goods from the West Bank, along with the Canadian and French governments.

The Irish government were the first to ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements, alongside Spain, with Ireland and Spain garnering a reputation as the most pro-Gaza countries in Europe.

Andrews said the action by the British, French and Canadian governments were “overdue” but “very welcome.”

Andrews commented, “countries like Germany and Italy are now clearly isolated in ignoring international law in the Middle East. It is also especially bitter that President von der Leyen has shown an abject failure of leadership again.”

Germany continues its status as the second-biggest supplier of arms and goods to Israel out of historical pressures, while the far-right Italian government are siding unilaterally with Israel on ideological grounds.

“I commend the Irish government and would encourage them to take another step now and ban the advertising of services from illegal Israeli settlements, as Spain has done,” Andrews said, putting pressure on his Fianna Fáil colleagues in Dublin.

“However overall, as we know, Europe’s real leverage over Israel’s genocidal policies is the EU/Israel Association Agreement,” he said.

“Suspending that agreement must be our focus before Palestine is wiped entirely from the map,” he warned.