{"id":461418,"date":"2026-05-22T08:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461418\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:06:14","slug":"occupied-territories-bill-to-move-forward-but-without-restriction-on-services-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461418\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupied Territories Bill to \u2018move forward\u2019 \u2013 but without restriction on services \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is set to ignore calls to include services in its legislation restricting trade with territories illegally occupied by Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is a move that will prompt pressure from the Opposition as the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> progresses through the Oireachtas. <\/p>\n

The scope of the Bill \u2013 and whether it will be focused solely on the trade of goods or expanded to services \u2013 has been a key question facing the Coalition. <\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> said on Thursday that she would bring the legislation to Cabinet in the coming weeks<\/a> \u2013 with a Coalition source saying this move was imminent.<\/p>\n

Action on the long-awaited legislation follows international condemnation of the treatment of activists on an aid flotilla<\/a> to Gaza<\/a> who were detained in international waters by Israeli forces.<\/p>\n

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the right-wing Israeli security minister, later taunted Irish activists and others<\/a> in a widely circulated video. His actions were condemned by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 14 Irish citizens present arrived in Istanbul after their deportation on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Paris following a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> all but dismissed the inclusion of services in the Bill, saying it would be going forward \u201cin respect of goods\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be progressing the Bill \u2013 as I said yesterday \u2013 in respect of goods, and I think we can make progress on that before summer,\u201d he told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the services side of it is implementable or viable, and the advice we have on that is fairly solid. Also legally it\u2019s not within our capacity to do it, but even apart from that it\u2019s just impossible to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progress on the Bill had stalled for almost a year as McEntee engaged in dialogue with the Attorney General. Draft legislation was scrutinised by the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, which recommended goods and services be included. <\/p>\n

Now she will bring a new version of the legislation to Cabinet, after which it will be presented to the D\u00e1il and begin its passage through the Oireachtas. It is unclear if it will be brought to the D\u00e1il before it rises for its summer break in mid-July, although one Government source indicated that was the aim.<\/p>\n

Frances Black, the Independent Senator who first introduced legislation seeking to ban trade with Israeli settlements in 2018, welcomed the news.<\/p>\n

But she said services should be included and she called on the Government to pass the legislation in full before the D\u00e1il rises for summer. <\/p>\n

Her call was mirrored in the D\u00e1il on Thursday, with Opposition parties urging the Government to clear the political agenda to enact the legislation quickly. <\/p>\n

The inclusion of services has become the focus of commentary around the Bill, with trade volumes in goods between settlements and Ireland minuscule. <\/p>\n

The Government is known to be concerned about the legal implications of it, as well as the consequences for US-Ireland political and economic relations. <\/p>\n

McEntee is expected to raise again Ireland\u2019s call for European Union<\/a> action on trade with illegal Israeli settlements at a meeting of trade ministers in Brussels on Friday.<\/p>\n

A Government source here said Ireland would proceed with its domestic legislation even if more concrete action were taken at European level. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is set to ignore calls to include services in its legislation restricting trade with territories illegally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10748,5148,3409,42,1556,3410,1843,43,4503,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-461418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-european-union","tag-gaza-strip","tag-headlines","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-israel","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461418","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=461418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}