The DUP has failed in its bid to overturn Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald’s move to block her department’s support for Israel.
The Sinn Féin minister last month ordered her department and Invest NI not to engage in future trade talks with Israel alongside the British government while the former “continues to illegally occupy and impose apartheid on Palestine”.
But the DUP opposed the move and succeeded in having the decision called-in after securing the required 30 signatures.
At a specially convened executive meeting on Tuesday, six ministers supported Ms Archibald’s move, while four opposed it.
Sinn Féin and Alliance ministers are understood to have upheld the minister’s decision, while the three DUP ministers and Health Minister Mike Nesbitt sought to block it.
Speaking after the meeting, Ms Archibald said she took action to ensure “there is no enabling of the genocide against the people of Gaza”.
“As economy minister, I am determined to do everything in my power to defend human rights, uphold international law and support the defenceless people of Gaza and Palestine who are suffering the horrors of genocide and forced starvation,” she said.
“No minister and no administration should be enabling genocide, and I don’t think that’s something that should have to come to the executive, and that was the view of the majority and the executive this morning.”
The minister said she and her executive colleagues should be “getting on with delivery”.
