{"id":489852,"date":"2026-06-09T01:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T01:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489852\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T01:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T01:12:09","slug":"ireland-v-israel-government-faces-further-pressure-to-back-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489852\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland v Israel: Government faces further pressure to back boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is set to face more pressure to support a boycott of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s match against Israel<\/a> after the decision to move the match out of Dublin was branded a \u201ccop-out\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government is set to face a week of political pressure for the game to be boycotted completely.<\/p>\n

A Sinn F\u00e9in motion will be debated today, Tuesday, with a motion from the Social Democrats on the same topic scheduled for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties have now said that moving the game will not suffice, and have vowed to continue seeking its cancellation.<\/p>\n

Labour TD Duncan Smith said a decision to move the game out of Ireland, rather than cancel it completely, was a \u201ccop-out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop the game and be brave enough to walk away from the fixture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many lives have been lost as a direct consequence of the genocide Israel has waged on Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving the venue does not answer the fundamental question here. Israel should not be enabled to participate in international football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Smith said normalising Israel\u2019s participation in sporting events is akin to \u201cnormalising genocide\u201d as he called for the game to be \u201cabandoned\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in and Social Democrats motions<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party\u2019s motion calls for the game \u201cnot to proceed in Ireland or anywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no support for our national team to play, under our Tricolour, against Israel while there is a genocide ongoing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sin\u00e9ad Gibney, the Social Democrats\u2019 sports spokeswoman, told RT\u00c9 Radio that moving the match to a neutral venue will prevent people\u2019s ability to protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy moving the venue, essentially that\u2019s the Government and the FAI washing their hands of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"DisplacedDisplaced Palestinians gather to receive food distributed by a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza\u00a0 on June 4 amid ongoing shortages of food caused by Israeli attacks and restrictions on aid entering Gaza. Picture: Bashar Taleb\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they move the venue to a neutral venue, individual players will have to decide whether or not they step onto that pitch or not. That is not a position they should be put in, but that is where they are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for the game not to be televised by RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n

The Sinn F\u00e9in motion calls on the Government to deny any Israeli football players, staff, officials, sports minister Makhlouf Zohar, president Isaac Herzog, and Israeli fans who have participated in violations of international law entry into Ireland.<\/p>\n

It also suggests that the Government should agree to cover the costs of any financial penalty that the FAI may incur through refusing to play the game.<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats\u2019 motion calls for the Government to \u201cadvocate, at national and international level, for Israel to be excluded from all international sporting competitions as long as the genocide and illegal occupation continues\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste: ‘D\u00e1il vote will have no impact’<\/p>\n

Speaking on Virgin Media’s Monday With Gavan Reilly, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said there should be “no pressure applied to the players” about the Israel match.<\/p>\n

However, he said whether the match goes ahead has “nothing to do with the Government” and is a matter for the FAI.<\/p>\n

“A vote in D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann will not have any impact here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What will, though, is a decision by the FAI board, and I really encourage the FAI to come to that decision this week to bring clarity to the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This shouldn’t drag on and on. So, I hope this week will, for once and for all, see clarity in relation to this.”<\/p>\n

Mr Harris said nothing that impacts Irish soccer should be done, adding that it was “kind of weird” that people are calling for “taxpayers’ money” to pay fines incurred by the FAI if they do not play the match.<\/p>\n

Louise Burne, Political Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is set to face more pressure to support a boycott of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4712,61,60,1634,43,1842],"class_list":["post-489852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-israel-palestine","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-media","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489852","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=489852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}