Frances Black ‘98pc sure' she won't run for presidency
The Independent senator was speaking as she announced details of a High Court action against the listing of Airbnb properties in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Since tabling the Occupied Territories Bill she has been linked to running in the presidential election due to take place later this year.
She has told the Irish Independent she is '98pc sure that I won't be running' but is leaving open the two per cent possibility 'because I have a responsibility – if people are coming to me – to consider that.'
Asked if she was in discussions with parties of the left about being their agreed candidate, she said: 'Initially they came to me in February. I have had no conversations since. So it has just grown out of all proportion.'
If she was to run under a left banner it would 'of course be all parties of the left,' she said, including Sinn Féin.
The draft version of the Occupied Territories Bill – first tabled by Senator Black in 2018 to ban trade with Israeli entities based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – is expected to be published this week.
It will be referred to an Oireachtas committee which will hold three meetings to scrutinise it, before being voted on in the Oireachtas. It is unlikely that the current timeframe of being passed before the summer can be met.
Ms Black said she is 'absolutely 100pc certain' that it is legally possible to include trade in goods in this Bill.
She was speaking at the launch of a set of coordinated legal actions being taken in the US, UK and Ireland targeting Airbnb listings is Israel's illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian territories.
Airbnb has over 300 accommodations listed in illegal settlements and while it previously said they would be removed that decision was since reversed.
A number of organisations including the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) as well as the Ireland Palestine Alliance have launched a High Court action challenging 'the refusal of gardaí to investigate Airbnb Ireland and its senior executives for alleged criminal activity in Israeli settlements'.
The group said: 'The acts of land appropriation, displacement and transfer of civilian population into occupied territory that facilitate the Israeli settlements are defined as war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law and related Irish legislation.'
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