Passing the Occupied Territories Bill will come at “some cost” to Ireland, the secretary general of Amnesty International has said, but there is “no real evidence that Ireland will pay a heavy price” despite threats.
Agnès Callamard on Wednesday met Taoiseach Micheál Martin, President Michael D Higgins, Attorney General Rossa Fanning and Senator Frances Black, who introduced the original OTB in 2018, during a visit to Ireland.
“Based on what I was told, the assessment of the cost is that it will be minimal,” she said.
The proposed law would ban the importation of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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“I felt that there was a prudent recognition that the cost could be handled,” Ms Callamard said. “That it is not something that will be a determining factor.”
The head of the global NGO has been meeting countries that have shown leadership on the issue of Israel and the upholding of international law, she said.
“The Irish government is probably the leading government, with Spain, around the world, not just the western world, in terms of the action it has taken.”
US federal law prohibits any boycott of trade with Israel but that is with the whole of the Israel and the OTB relates only to the occupied territories, she said.
The US, through the US President, Donald Trump, might make threats, but does not have the legal tools to enforce its “bullying,” Ms Callamard said.
There is “rhetoric” from the corporate sector too, she said, but the evidence supporting real implications “from what we have been told, is very light.”
She said Spain, Slovenia and Luxembourg, among other countries, are considering measures similar to the OTB.
But the head of Irish employers’ association Ibec also warned on Thursday that the Republic’s stand against Israel over Gaza and its failure to spend properly on defence are damaging its interests in the United States and with other EU member states.
The Government’s plan to pass legislation banning “tiny” sums of trade with the Occupied Territories Bill is “hypocritical”, said Danny McCoy, the director general of Ibec. Last year, the State bought just €240,000 worth of goods from the Occupied Territories, he told the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal.
“We’re not talking about millions here,” he said, adding: “This is not about actually helping in any material way. It’s symbolism and moral positioning, and so on. However, with moral positions, you can also reveal hypocrisy.”
His comments follow a series of criticisms of the Bill by at least 10 members of the US Congress. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, accused Ireland of suffering from “diplomatic intoxication” in progressing something as “stupid” as this Bill.
The Taoiseach on Wednesday rejected the ambassador’s comments and outlined the “very serious” situation in Gaza.
At the summer school on Thursday, Mr McCoy said the State’s stand on Israel is “well-intentioned” but “causing us significant damage”.
Meanwhile, Irish attitudes to its own defence spending, but also to the defence spending of others, is losing the Republic support among EU states. “We don’t have many supporters,” Mr McCoy said.
Also speaking at the summer school, Prof Brigid Laffan, chancellor of Limerick University, said Ireland should be “more hard-nosed” and not endanger its diplomatic capital by passing the Occupied Territories Bill.
“We’re a small state. We’ve limited influence. We must use our influence cleverly,” she said. “Symbolic politics might make us feel good about the world. But unless it changes people’s lives on the ground, you should not expend hard-earned diplomatic capacity.” .
