Palestine campaigners welcome Govt scrapping of ‘Israeli bullets’ deal, warn against future deals

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Monday October 11, 2010 13:56 by Kev - IPSC divestment at ipsc dot ie

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) today welcomed the government’s refusal to grant Israel Military Industries the contract to supply 10 million bullets to the Irish Defence Forces. The contract for the 5.56 x 45mm rounds, to be bought over a five-year period, has instead gone to Belgian and Brazilian arms manufacturers. Over the past seven months the IPSC had been running a campaign (http://www.ipsc.ie/bullets) against the granting of the contract to any Israeli company, which saw the organisation and its supporters lobbied the government, undertook a letter writing campaign and protested outside the Defence Minister Tony Killeen’s constituency office in Co. Clare - see: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayRe...D=336

Hailing the decision, IPSC National Chairperson Freda Hughes today said: “We commend the Irish government’s actions in this instance. For the Irish government to have bought bullets from Israel – the same bullets that have been used to murder thousands of Palestinians over the past decade – would have given succour to that rogue state, and given the impression that it can do what it likes to the Palestinian people and not suffer any consequences. The IPSC is proud of our campaign around this issue, and have no doubt that it played a role, albeit unacknowledged, in bringing about this decision.”

Ms Hughes continued, saying that people should be aware that the government may in future purchase others products from Israeli arms companies, saying: “The government should be aware that the purchase of any equipment from Israeli arms manufacturers will be highly unpopular in this country. The fact that we have already given over €14 million of taxpayers money to Israeli arms manufacturers is scandalous and no more should flow into their pockets while Israel continues to violate international law on a daily basis.”

Ms Hughes concluded by calling on the government not to engage in any further defence contracts with Israel, saying: “While the IPSC calls for the general boycott of Israeli products, we know that at present the Irish government does not officially endorse such a stance. Of course, we hope this will change in the future and actively encourage such a shift in official opinion. However, for the present, even amongst those who do not subscribe to a general boycott, there can be no serious debate about whether it is appropriate to purchase weapons from companies that are intimately linked to the Israeli armed forces and that supply the means by which the war crimes documented in the Goldstone Report can be committed.”

ENDS

IPSC demo outside Defence Minister Tony Killeen's office in May 2010