Ireland calls on Israel to pay compensation after destroying EU-funded buildings

Middle East Monitor  /  January 24, 2023

The Irish foreign minister demanded on Monday that the Israeli authorities should pay compensation for their systematic destruction of buildings funded by the European Union in occupied Palestine.

Michael Martin told the Irish Times upon his arrival in Brussels to attend a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers that, “I don’t think it’s acceptable that on an ongoing basis, the European Union is contributing very significant aid to Palestinians and to Palestinian infrastructure, for it to be habitually destroyed.”

The ongoing settlement issue — and particularly Masafer Yatta — is not acceptable in terms of the mass expulsion of people, the Irish minister added. “And that is, in our view, unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective [and] is provocative.”