Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin, Lynn Boylan, has today called on the Taoiseach Michéal Martin to urgently challenge the offer made by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas to Israeli authorities to assist in replacing UNRWA.
MEP Boylan said:
“This is the latest in the EU’s shameful complicity in the genocide in Gaza and in allowing the culture of impunity that Israel is allowed to enjoy. The Taoiseach must make a public statement challenging Kaja Kallas directly.
“Kaja Kallas has no mandate to make this offer as the European Council has reiterated its opposition to replacing UNRWA. The High Representative is going on a dangerous solo run to capitulate to Israel’s longstanding attacks on UNRWA.
“We need to be really clear that there is no replacement for UNRWA and their work is about so much more than humanitarian aid. They have a political mandate going back 75 years and that is to support Palestinian refugees and their right to return to their homeland.
“No humanitarian aid has entered Gaza in over 50 days. The Israeli Government is using starvation as a weapon of war. Do we see sanctions from the EU? No, we see Kaja Kallas abandoning UNRWA and the principles of international law which underpin it.
“The Taoiseach and the Irish Government must seek a formal reprimand of Ms. Kallas for these actions and force her to urgently rescind this offer and clarify the EU’s opposition to replacing UNRWA.
“This is not the first time that EU officials have gone on dangerous solo runs to aid Israel in their attacks on international law. From Ursula von der Leyen’s support for the Israeli Government to former Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi’s unilateral decision to freeze EU funding of aid to Palestine – we have seen EU officials not appropriately reprimanded for going beyond their mandate to defend Israel.
“This cannot continue. Kaja Kallas must be reprimanded, and the Irish Government must seek this reprimand and cancellation of her offer to the Israeli Government immediately.”
