IPSC commends Irish Government success in freezing transfer of EU citizen data to Israel

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Friday September 03, 2010 13:06 by Conor Mc - IPSC info at ipsc dot ie

Press Release, 3rd September 2010

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) today praised the successful intervention by Irish Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to block a proposed European Commission data-sharing plan with Israel. If adopted, the proposal would have given the go-ahead to EU member states to allow the transfer to and storage of sensitive personal data on European citizens to Israel.

The European Commission proposal was for EU member states to give a green-light to a declaration that the EU recognises Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow member states to transfer sensitive personal data to Israel. Without such a declaration, the transfer of sensitive personal data to Israel is illegal. As a result of Irish pressure, the move was debated in an EU committee that deals with protection of personal data.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern had pressed to have the plan halted in the light of disquiet about the use of eight fake Irish passports by the Israeli assassins of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Accordingly, no vote was taken at the meeting of the Commission’s data protection committee when it sat yesterday, and the Commission has undertaken to seek clarification from Israel on its data protection systems. Mr Ahern’s spokesman said yesterday that “the bottom line with regard to this proposal was that a country that is at the centre of a very serious international incident involving the death of a man and the use of forged passports would be given the go-ahead with regard to transfer of personal data of EU citizens’.

Freda Hughes, IPSC National Chairperson, today said: “The IPSC commends Minister Ahern’s successful intervention to freeze this process – the sole EU minister to take this stance. The Israeli state has been routinely committing crimes against the Palestinian people for decades and the EU should not be taking steps to normalise this abusive behaviour by a rogue state. Furthermore, the very idea that EU citizens private data would be provided to Israel after the passport abuse in the Dubai murder is absurd. Israel’s actions have, time and again, proven that it is not a ‘normal’ state and should not be treated as such.”

Ms Hughes continued with a call to the Irish government and other EU states: “The IPSC understand that this important issue will be discussed again at a future meeting of the EU Commission’s data protection committee. We encourage the Irish government to maintain the strong line they have already taken on this issue and refuse to allow Israel access to sensitive data on EU citizens. We also call on other EU member states to rethink their positions on this matter as to allow such a move would leave millions of people open to state-sponsored identity theft of the kind we witnessed in Dubai last January, and indeed would be a tacit acceptance the legitimacy of such acts of state terrorism carried out by Israel.”

Ms Hughes concluded: “The fact that Ireland, standing alone, could put a temporary halt to this process shows that we can persuade Europe to listen to Irish concerns about Israel’s actions. The IPSC encourages the Irish government to expand this independent stance, especially with regard to the Euro-Med Agreement which grants Israeli preferential trading status. Ireland should seek the suspension of this agreement until Israel abides by its human rights clause in Article II. If Ireland were to make such a call it could generate a far-reaching debate on the EU’s relationship to Israel and send a strong message to the Israeli state that it can no longer deny the Palestinian people their rights while enjoying complete impunity.”

ENDS