Council reaffirms commitment to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy

Derry City and Strabane District Council has reaffirmed its commitment to the policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

BDS is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.

Speaking at Wednesday’s February Council meeting, Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP) said he was disappointed the Irish Government had not responded to Council’s call for it to end its opposition to the Occupied Territories Bill but had “essentially scrapped it”.

In December 2024, Derry and Strabane Council agreed to write to Dáil Éireann Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, requesting the Dáil to prioritise the passing of the Bill. The move followed the passing of a proposal brought by Cllr Pat Murphy (Sinn Féin), in spite of the abstention of DUP and UUP members.

The Occupied Territories Bill is a proposed law that would ban and criminalise "trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in territories deemed occupied under international law”, most notably Israeli settlements in Israeli-occupied territories. Violators would face fines of up to €250,000 and up to five years in prison.

Cllr Harkin said there had been a recent “very positive” meeting of Council’s BDS working group, which included BDS Strabane, Derry-Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Bloody Sunday Trust.

Derry IPSC first group invited to make a presentation to Derry and Strabane Council in 2025

‘Whole families have been wiped off the Civil Registry in Gaza. Whole bloodlines have been destroyed. This is nothing but deliberate’ - Catherine Hutton, Derry IPSC

He added: “All of us have been quite frustrated about the pace of action that we have been able to take but we got very positive updates at that meeting about divestment and about moving forward with the ethical procurement policy as well. We are eager to see that develop in the coming months.

“There were a few issues raised with us by Council officers. One was that, for us to be able to continue to promote our support of BDS through our social media, we would have to as a Council agree to that because we had originally said, ‘until there is a ceasefire, we will promote through BDS’.

“There is now a ceasefire. It is very tenuous. There are a lot of problems with it but Israel is also escalating its war of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, so it is by no means the case that the war is over and the Palestinians are going to be able to enjoy self-determination and freedom.

“The working group agreed we would want to continue to use our platforms to promote our support for BDS and would work with the communications team to figure out exactly what were the best ways to do that in the weeks and months ahead,” said Cllr Harkin, who commended businesses and organisations in the Council area which had “sourced alternative brands not complicit with genocide and apartheid”.

Cllr Harkin’s BDS motion called on Council to “continue to promote our support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the genocidal Israeli apartheid state on our social media platforms. 

“Council welcomes and commends businesses and organisations who have procured alternative Cola brands in support of BDS and will bring forward a paper looking at how Council can also procure alternative brands,” it concluded.

The motion was seconded by Cllr Gary Donnelly (Independent) who said: “Never again means never again for everybody.

He added: “There is a ceasefire which is nearly unrecognisable when there have been hundreds of people killed and injured since it was called, so it is only a ceasefire for certain people.

“The Zionist regime has inflicted unimaginable suffering and slaughter and we can’t take our foot off the pedal because there is a so-called ceasefire. If the Zionist regime gets away with this then it will continue and it will do it again.

“BDS is very, very important until these people are held to account.”