Jerusalem Post: Parliament of Ireland intends to vote on expelling the Israeli ambassador

The Israeli Jerusalem Post said that the Irish Parliament intends to vote this week on a proposal to expel the Israeli ambassador from Ireland.

The aforementioned proposal accuses Israel of committing war crimes, ethnic cleansing and expansion of illegal settlements, explaining that "the presence of the Israeli ambassador in Ireland is indefensible under these circumstances."

The newspaper reported that 11 deputies from 4 parties submitted the expulsion proposal last week, prior to the entry into force of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.

This proposal points out that "more than 60 children were killed by the Israeli army," noting that "the reason for the recent escalation is an attempt to carry out ethnic cleansing against 28 Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem."

This proposal is sponsored by the representative of the Irish Socialist Party "People before profit" Gino Kerry, who expressed in his blog post outrage that "the European Union has never considered punishing Israel economically for its apartheid system and has not held it accountable for war crimes (which Commit it) ".

Although the proposal may not be binding, it will put pressure on the Irish government, according to the newspaper, especially since the deputies of the "Sinn Fein" party, another opposition party with 37 seats in Parliament, have expressed their intention to support this proposal.

An Israeli diplomatic source told the newspaper that Israel was indifferent to this proposal, saying that those who submitted it were only a few "extremists."

But an Irish political source told the newspaper that joint sponsorship of a proposal is not common in the Irish House of Representatives, adding that the signature of only 11 deputies out of 160 does not reflect the amount of real support for the proposal in general.

The opposition "Sinn Fein" party is planning to vote in favor of the aforementioned proposal. The party’s youth wing also published a petition on the Internet calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, which had obtained nearly 84,000 signatures as of Sunday.

The Jerusalem Post quoted a political source as saying that the "People Before Win" party and pro-Palestinian activists are pressing strongly on members of parliament who may have been considering abstaining from voting on the proposal to expel the ambassador.

In addition, the source says, the ruling coalition is considering allowing lawmakers to vote as dictated by their conscience, in which case it is likely that many members of the pro-Palestinian "Viana Ville" and Greens parties will vote in favor of the proposal.

According to the newspaper, successive Irish governments have often leveled harsh criticism of Israel and played a leading role in the European Union, for more severe responses to Israeli violations.