DUP MP Sammy Wilson lambasts Irish government's 'virtue-signalling' divestment from Israeli banks and says Hamas have made civilian deaths unavoidable

​He was reacting to a decision by the Dublin government to divest 2.95m euros (£2.53m) from the outfits because they are engaged in “certain activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” (a term that covers the West Bank and usually the Gaza Strip too).

The government’s statement did not elaborate on what these activities were, but the six enterprises in question are: Bank Hapoalim BM, Bank Leumi-le Israel BM, Israel Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd, First International Bank, and Rami Levi CN Stores.

The money was under control of the Irish National Treasury Management Agency, and as well as citing the companies’ roles in Palestinian territory it also said that “the risk profile of these investments is no longer within its investment parameters”.

For decades there has been a movement known as BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) which has sought to get western democracies to penalise Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, with protestors making the same call at a rally in London on Friday.

Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, the Irish government has been an especially vocal European voice when it comes to criticising Israel’s policies.

Mr Wilson, long a staunch supporter of Israel, said tonight: “It doesn’t surprise me. They’ve been first off the block to condemn Israel many, many times for their action defending their own territory.

"They’ve jumped on this kind of anti-Israeli bandwagon. I suspect that from Israel’s point of view the Irish government withdrawal of funding is not going to make any huge difference, or have a huge impact on the Israeli economy."

As such, it is “a bit of virtue-signalling – that’s all it is”.

He said that Israel cannot “take its foot off the pedal” in terms of its military action against Gaza because Hamas would rebound and attack it again.

“In any war, there’s always going to be casulaties, and casualties of innocent people,” he said.

"We, during the Second World War, killed a lot of civilians in our attempt to destroy the Nazi regime.

"The Israelis are facing a Nazi regime on their doorstep and they are entitled and should be given support to take every action which is required.”

Of the death toll of Gazan civilians, he said: “You wouldn’t expect anything different when terrorists use their own population as shields and conduct a war in the middle of their own populated, built-up areas.”

He said “the civilian casualties are horrendous” but “the world doesn’t know what the true figure is – they simply take the word of terrorists on this” (a reference to the fact that the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has been the main source of the death toll figures.

The current figure cited by the UN (based on the same source) is 30,228 Palestinian fatalities with 1.7m Gazans (75% of the population) having fled their homes, with 1,200 Israeli casualties on October 7 and 240 soldiers killed in operations in Gaza.

Gaza has been essentially under Hamas control since 2007 after it won an election there (none have been held since).

In contrast, the West Bank has been under the control of the more moderate Fatah.

There are upwards of 3m Palestinians in the West Bank and upwards of 600,000 Israeli settlers, with Israel controlling roughly 60% of the land in the territory according to the UN.