Alan Shatter criticised for comparing Occupied Territories Bill to 'Father Ted'
Ex-Fine Gael TD Mr Shatter appeared at the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee in his role as a member of the Ireland Israel Alliance, opposing a draft law banning trade with Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands that have been deemed illegal.
Mr Shatter repeatedly described it as a "Father Ted" measure and compared it to Jews being targeted during the Second World War. Mr Shatter said the bill was "based on falsehoods" and "abandons all lessons learned in our own peace process".
He said a lack of definition around the word 'originated' in the bill "creates a myriad of difficulties".
"The bill is the first initiative of any European government to enact legislation to intentionally boycott and discriminate against Jews since the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945," he said.
Committee member Brian Brennan said that he had met seriously injured and orphaned Gazans as well as "hardened" charities in Cairo at the weekend.
"I went and I sat on a bed with a young man who was in the prime of his life and has two months to live because of what's happening in Gaza," the Fine Gael TD for Wexford-Wicklow said.
I played football with teenage kids who are orphans because of what's happening in Gaza. I held the hand of a two-year-old child who had bullet wounds because of what's happening in Gaza.
"How dare you come in here and make such statements as 'a Father Ted bill'."
Responding, Mr Shatter said the bill is "a thing of complete irrelevance" to peace and did not deal "with the lives of people".
"What you're doing is trying to ban the importation of a small amount of olives and avocados from the West Bank of East Jerusalem, the total value of which, over five years, came to €685,000."
Asked by Fine Gael TD Barry Ward if there is acceptance that settlements were contrary to international law, Natasha Hausdorff, barrister with the Ireland Israel Alliance said that "one cannot occupy what is one's own property".
Committee chair John Lahart said the idea that the bill is antisemitic was "hugely hurtful, hugely offensive, slanderous" and he "rejected it in its entirety".
You won't find antisemitism here, and you would do this country — which you love, and we all love — a great favour by promulgating that view as widely and as strongly as you possibly can.
Mr Shatter responded that this is "the perception the bill internationally creates".
Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, called the bill "misguided" and "not a plan for peace". He said that "while this bill may not set out to target Jews or Jewish life, it is a message unmistakably felt by us".
He said the "bill may feel good", but "does it do good?"
Labour's Duncan Smith said that there was a "fundamental point of divergence" on whether settlements were illegal.
Earlier, Tánaiste Simon Harris responded to Mr Shatter's Father Ted reference by saying there was nothing humorous about the killing of children in Gaza.
Mr Harris told Newstalk radio that the Irish Government can differentiate between a people and their government, and that the actions of the Israeli government are "despicable".
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