Rory Hearne: Why Ireland Must Include Services in the Bill

Thank you very much Cathaoirleach. I want to thank Deputy Gibney for her outlining very clearly why services need to be included in this and I want to further develop that because I think the government is making a fundamental mistake here in not including services. We have seen very clearly and I'm going to outline some of the international law practice and findings in relation to the West Bank and what is going on and it is deeply, deeply disappointing that the government has decided to exclude services from this, which effectively does significantly, significantly reduce the impact of the changes to the point at which it is actually, and the argument that Blíne Ní Chroaillach has made, is that actually in fact this is going to be even more negative than if it had not been done at all and I'll outline why that is the case and I'm going to also outline the reality of what trade and services means right now and what is happening. So we know that the ICJ, what it has found, we know Ireland's legal obligations under that in terms of what is going on in the West Bank in relation to settler violence and illegal settlements. I want to talk particularly about one specific case, Minister, that I think will highlight the reality of this and will take it really down to a human level of what we're talking about by excluding services and it's the issue of Airbnb and letting of properties in the West Bank and I've done some research on this. There is a particular Israeli settlement called Tuqiu and it is outlined by the Secretary General of the United Nations last year in September, outlined how this particular settlement has expanded and occupied and removed Palestinians off their land and it is marked as the report found by the Secretary General that one of the largest single land expansions from a single settlement to date, according to Palestinian residents in the Tuqiu wilderness, settlers from the nearby outposts and settlements coordinate surveillance, harassment and attacks to force Palestinians from the area. This, as I said, is just September gone. This settlement expansion and displacement of Palestinian herders was accompanied by the construction of military outposts, settler patrolled roads and a metal gate to restrict Palestinian access, indicating a degree of coordination between settlers and the state. Infrastructure projects include electricity lines, internal roads connecting to Koba settlement to the surrounding outposts. Earth mounds were erected to block key routes isolating Palestinian communities and restricting movement. OHCHR documented settler attacks that forcibly displaced families from the wilderness around Tuqiu. One family, three brothers, their wives and eight children was displaced five times between October 2023 and late 2024. It goes on to state that. Now I went on to Airbnb, the site today, and I looked up renting Airbnb in Palestine. What comes up? Tekoa, that very place, a number of properties on Airbnb to rent in land that is illegally occupied, where the UN has found people have been displaced from. The one guest suite in Tekoa is advertised as a fully furnished luxury apartment isolated in the village. It describes just a 15-minute drive for Jerusalem. They offer a locally authentic resting spot and a clear view of the desert where no one has set foot. Of course, completely untrue as Palestinians. They also describe a wide and beautifully decorated area. Forget all your worries here, the advertisement is. That is what Ireland is facilitating via Airbnb in data centres in this country. We are facilitating that. The commercialisation, the commodification, exploitation of illegal settler land. That is what is being done and that is what you are facilitating by removing services from this bill. I'm going to quote directly from a human rights barrister, of course, who was lauded by the government in terms of her work on the ICG case. What she says very clearly and said to the committee was that there is no basis in international law for differentiating between trade in goods and trade in services in the manner you are proposing. And no international law justification for legislating for less than full compliance by Ireland with an international obligation articulated by the ICG. That cannot be clearer. So you are effectively saying to the international law, no, we are not going to actually oblige by it. She went on to say the flip side, she says, if Ireland were to pass restrictive legislation which didn't fully comply with its obligations, which this is, that actually it would have a negative impact. It could be used by other states to say this much but not more. She says it's not overstating the case to say that doing so could be extraordinarily harmful not only to the international legal order but to the very people and very rights Ireland would be purporting to protect through this legislation. We're at a stage when fundamental precepts and structures of international law are under quite severe assault. For the government to pass legislation that it does not believe is fully compliant with its obligations would be deeply regrettable. Minister, why are you passing a bill that does not fulfil our obligations under the International Court of Justice ruling in relation to genocide? This bill should not be passed as it is and should include services.