{"id":607086,"date":"2026-08-28T09:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607086\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:22:10","slug":"irish-pro-palestine-group-reports-central-bank-governor-to-international-criminal-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607086\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish pro-Palestine group reports Central Bank governor to International Criminal Court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign<\/a> (IPSC) has moved to have the International Criminal Court<\/a> (ICC) investigate the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland<\/a>, Gabriel Makhlouf<\/a>, for, it is alleged, having \u201ccontributed to\u201d or \u201caided and abetted the crime of genocide by the state of Israel<\/a> in Gaza<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a 102-page submission to the court lodged on Wednesday, the IPSC alleged Makhlouf contributed to the Israeli action through his role with the bank, which has, for the most of the period since October 2023, regulated the sale of Israeli State bonds within the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The organisation said almost \u20ac420 million was raised between October 2023 and the middle of April 2025 by the sale of \u201cretail investor bonds approved for marketing by the governor and the Central Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prospectus for the bonds, the submission acknowledged, stated the money raised could only be used for \u201cgeneral financing\u201d, but, it contended, \u201cadvertising materials make clear their importance in supporting Israel\u2019s \u2018war effort\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

IPSC\u2019s submission said that in September 2024, Makhlouf \u201capproved or caused the approval of the prospectus for the Israeli bonds, which had been marketed since October 2023 under the slogan \u2018Israel is at War\u2019 and \u2018We Stand with Israel\u2019\u201d. <\/p>\n

It argued that in the wake of the statement in January 2024 by the International Court of Justice, on foot of a case taken by South Africa, that \u201cat least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible\u201d, Makhlouf and the bank should have been aware of the risks posed to the rights of Palestinians by Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom January 26th, 2024, to August 31st, 2025,\u201d it says, however, \u201cthe governor declined to exercise the powers available to him, including the power under … regulation (EU) 600\/2014 to prohibit or restrict the marketing and distribution of those bonds\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese actions and omissions, committed with knowledge of Israel\u2019s intent to commit the crime of genocide in Gaza, are alleged to have contributed to the commission of the crime … or alternatively may constitute aiding and abetting … by facilitating Israel\u2019s access to EU capital markets,\u201d it also said.<\/p>\n

The submission was made in accordance with article 15 of the Rome Statute, under which the prosecutor at the ICC has a responsibility to analyse information received and may initiate investigations into alleged crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the court on the basis of the information.<\/p>\n

The IPSC submission, which was drawn up with the support of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, said Makhlouf\u2019s position, stated in front of the Oireachtas Joint Finance Committee in July and elsewhere, that the Central Bank was in effect powerless to prevent the marketing of the bonds was legally incorrect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Central Bank of Ireland was indeed empowered to act under European law and, more fundamentally, under an international legal obligation to do so after it came to light what the proceeds of the bonds were being used for,\u201d the submission stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the gravity of the issue at hand and the lack of domestic accountability, the communication asks the Office of the Prosecutor to investigate the Governor\u2019s responsibility under articles … of the Statute for his alleged contribution to Israel\u2019s commission of the crime of genocide, and act as it sees appropriate.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Central Bank was approached for comment by it or by Makhlouf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has moved to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate the governor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,20927,5148,28228,3409,61,45314,60,43924,3410],"class_list":["post-607086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-bank-of-ireland","tag-european-union","tag-gabriel-makhlouf","tag-gaza-strip","tag-ie","tag-international-criminal-court","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-palestine-solidarity-campaign","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607086","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=607086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}