Governments have a moral and legal obligation not to provide arms to countries which are “committing genocide”, Stormont’s Economy Minister has said.
Caoimhe Archibald told the Northern Ireland Assembly she had made it clear her expectation was that public money would not go towards providing financial assistance to any companies arming Israel.
Last week the Sinn Fein minister issued a statement saying her department would not “engage in the British Government’s trade talks with Israel while it continues to illegally occupy and impose apartheid on Palestine”.
The DUP has already launched a move in the Assembly to have the matter referred to the wider Stormont Executive for discussion.
Ms Archibald was questioned about her statement during ministerial question time on Monday.
She told MLAs that she had commissioned a review to establish if businesses in receipt of grant funding from Invest NI, Stormont’s business support agency, had links to Israeli arms.
She added: “I think there is a moral duty for us to ensure we are not facilitating the genocide that is happening in Gaza.
“Israel is a regime that is illegally occupying and imposing apartheid on Palestine, it is carrying out a genocide.
“I think there is a legal obligation on all governments to take action to prevent genocide, including not arming or providing financial support to those committing genocide.”
DUP MLA Stephen Dunne said: “What message does her actions in the last week send to the 9,000 employed here in our aerospace, defence, security and space sectors?
“A sector that is worth over £2 billion to our local economy.
“Can you outline any work undertaken by your department to assess the potential risk to both jobs and further investment as a result of your actions?”
Ms Archibald said her message was that “we will have no part in supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
She said: “I think we have a moral duty to ensure that we are not doing that, we have a moral duty to hold to account the Israeli government for the actions it has taken.
“We have a moral obligation to take action to prevent genocide from actually happening.
“I have made clear it is my expectation that public funding isn’t going towards supporting that.”
She added: “I work every day to support the betterment of our economy, creating jobs and attracting investment.”
Ms Archibald is also facing a legal threat over her statement last week.
A pre-action protocol letter has been issued by pro-union think tank Unionist Voice Policy Studies (UVPS).
The group says that as international trade policy is not a devolved issue, Ms Archibald has no authority to act on the matter.
