Irish MEP urges EU sanctions on Israel after 5-year entry ban over Palestine advocacy

Irish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Lynn Boylan has urged the European Union to impose travel bans and sanctions on Israeli officials after being barred from entering occupied territories for five years — a move she described as “an insult to the European Parliament and its elected representatives.”

Boylan, who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine, was informed of the ban days before she was due to lead an official mission to the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Sinn Féin lawmaker said the decision shows Israel’s contempt for international law and exposes “double standards” in how the EU treats its partners.

In an op-ed published in EU Observer, Boylan wrote that Israel’s action “is certainly not the behavior of a democracy,” calling it part of a broader pattern of obstruction against European engagement with Palestinians.

She argued that the EU should respond by restricting the entry of Israeli officials, saying, “Failure to take real action now will demonstrate that a foreign power can dictate the terms of MEPs work - even in countries which they have no lawful jurisdiction over.”

The ban follows an earlier incident in February when Boylan, French MEP Rima Hassan, and two EU officials were detained and deported from Ben Gurion Airport, despite holding authorization for an official visit.

Boylan said that the Israeli regime cited several “bizarre” reasons for the current ban, including her public support for upholding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants.

Writing in her op-ed, Boylan denounced “genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza” and Israel’s “brutal annexation” of the West Bank, accusing global powers of providing “diplomatic and political cover” for those actions.

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She said her delegation’s work, focused on human rights and monitoring EU-funded aid projects in Palestine, has been “frustrated at every turn by the Israeli authorities.”

Boylan noted that Israeli lawmakers travel freely across the EU, despite continued violations of international law.

By contrast, she said, MEPs advocating for Palestinian rights are being blocked. “We cannot alter the fact that Israel is an occupying power,” she wrote.

“The European Parliament should not accept that the occupier is blocking MEPs from engaging with the occupied peoples, it is mandated to do so.”

Comparing Israel’s conduct to a hypothetical scenario in which Russia blocked EU access to Ukraine, Boylan said the European Parliament would demand action and consequences.

The call comes as European countries remain the largest buyers of weapons from Israel, helping to finance the regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Bloomberg reported in September that European nations purchased $8 billion worth of Israeli weapons last year.

The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 68,527 Palestinians and wounded 170,395 since it began in October 2023.

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