{"id":188423,"date":"2025-12-12T19:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/188423\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T19:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:01:07","slug":"occupied-territories-bill-to-exclude-trade-in-services-to-minimise-damage-to-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/188423\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupied Territories Bill to exclude trade in services to minimise \u2018damage\u2019 to Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Planned curbs on Irish trade with Israeli<\/a> settlements will be limited strictly to goods to minimise \u201cdamage\u201d to the Irish economy.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said on Friday the addition of services in the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> would \u201cdamage the country [Ireland] more than in any way put pressure on Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government is under pressure to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, including a joint motion in the D\u00e1il last month.<\/p>\n

When asked why the bill was being limited to goods, the Taoiseach said the Government had to take in to account anti-boycott legislation in the United States which was introduced to protect Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a duty to say to people: You know there are implications and consequences beyond our control. [There is] the anti-boycott and divestments legislation in many states in the US. It would put many of those companies who are not involved at all \u2013 it would put them under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t have any consequential impact on Israel but rather it could have a more damaging impact on Ireland. That was never the intention of the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin was speaking after Thomas Byrne<\/a>, Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, told Reuters the bill would be limited to the import of goods and it would not become law this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extremely limited measure, which would prohibit imports \u200cof goods from illegally-occupied territories,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cSimilar measures have already been brought in a number of European countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

has said. <\/p>\n

The \u200cGovernment \u200bhas \u200dsignalled the Bill is imminent but has yet to publicly announce its scope.<\/p>\n

Mr Byrne declined to say when it would be sent to parliament, as the Government weighs the Bill\u2019s implications. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not going to be implemented this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Limiting the Bill to goods would catch just a \u2060handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories such as fruit that are \u2060worth just \u20ac200,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien said, in reaction, to Mr Byrne\u2019s comments on the bill that Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee is to bring forward an update to Cabinet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it may be on the agenda on Tuesday. I know what Minister [Thomas] Byrne has said, and I\u2019ll wait to see what the presentation is when it\u2019s given at Cabinet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Gaza<\/a>, Israel \u200dsays it acted in self-defence following the deadly October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has repeatedly said it is committed to international law and tries to minimise harm to the civilian population of Gaza.<\/p>\n

Senator Frances Black, who proposed the Bill, told Reuters she would push to include a ban on services. \u201cIt will take a lot of work in the new year to get services included but that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m prepared to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Byrne also defended the Government, after Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar recently posted a video online in which he accused it of having an \u201canti-Semitic nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Sa\u2019ar said the Irish Government\u2019s response had been slow to a local proposal to rename a park<\/a> bearing the name of Chaim Herzog, the former president of Israel who was \u200craised in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject outright that the country is in any way anti-Semitic,\u201d said Mr Byrne. \u201cWe\u2019re deeply conscious of the contribution that Jewish people have \u200cmade in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s relations with Israel have been fraught. Last December, Israel shut its embassy<\/a> in Dublin amid a row over Ireland\u2019s criticism of its war in Gaza, including Ireland\u2019s recognition of a Palestinian state last year.<\/p>\n

MEP Barry Andrews urged Dublin to go ahead with its occupied territories Bill. \u201cClaims that Ireland is anti-Semitic are nonsense,\u201d he said. \u201cIreland has nothing to fear. We are no longer the only ones doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf was forced to abandon a public speech in Dublin by pro-Palestinian protesters objecting to the Central Bank\u2019s earlier role in the sale of Israeli bonds. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Planned curbs on Irish trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods to minimise \u201cdamage\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32477,61,60,3410,43,4503,73683],"class_list":["post-188423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-barry-andrews","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-thomas-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}