Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands have all passed Bills imposing sanctions on Israel in the Occupied Territories, the Dáil has heard as it debated a joint Opposition motion on the legislation.
People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett, who introduced the debate, said the Irish Government – which he said has claimed to be the most pro-Palestinian voice in the EU – “still refuses” to implement legislation.
The Government has faced pressure from the Opposition to pass the Bill and from politicians in the US, a key ally of Israel, not to proceed.
Calling for the controversial legislation, first introduced in 2018, to be passed before the end of the year and to include services as well as goods, Mr Boyd Barrett said the Government was “dancing to the tune of Donald Trump” and the US.
READ MORE
Mr Boyd Barrett said there is “clear legal advice” from the Attorney General and the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee to allow a ban on trade in services as well as goods in illegally occupied territories.
There have been 19 rounds of sanctions against Russia for its “unjustified” and “brutal” invasion of Ukraine, he said. But for Palestine, after “two years of a genocidal massacre, 17 years of a criminal siege on Gaza, decades of ethnic cleansing, 700,000 illegal settlements in the West Bank, and apartheid system, denial of the right to return, ethnic cleansing on an ongoing basis, not a single sanction”.
Labour’s Duncan Smith referred to the US pressure and said the Taoiseach had received a letter from 23 US lawmakers.
“Why are we marching to their tune?” he asked, when they represent just 5 per cent of Congress and less than the proportion of the Lowry group supporting the Government.
He said the matter had been examined in pre-legislative scrutiny and the Government was asked if any company said they were going to pull out of Ireland or not increase jobs. “They could not answer,” said Mr Smith.
The Foreign Affairs Committee had asked the American Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago and the answer was negative. “All they could say is this typical vague ‘reputational damage,’” he said, arguing that Ireland’s reputation is actually being increased by pushing this Bill.
Independent Barry Heneghan said he was “disappointed with the delays, the excuses and the verbal dances” on the Bill. They had been promised that the Bill would progress once amendments were made within six months, but 11 months had passed.
The Dublin Bay North TD, who participated in the recent international aid flotilla to Gaza, said he had only voted against the Government on the Palestinian issue and said he would continue to do so.
The Government did not oppose the motion.
Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Thomas Byrne said the Government had “no policy issue in relation to the inclusion of services, but it must be legally robust and withstand challenge.
“Similarly, the question of implementation must be carefully considered. Trade in services is considerably more complex than goods, and there remains considerable legal uncertainty as whether the inclusion of services is permissible under EU law.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs is currently finalising the regulatory impact assessment and the next steps in progressing the Bill “are being considered by the Government”, he said.
Mr Byrne stressed that the Bills passed by other EU states “by and large” dealt with goods from illegal settlements.
The Government is “extremely concerned” by ongoing developments across the West Bank, where Israeli military operations have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians since January and caused widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure. “The scale, speed and severity of the displacement and demolitions are absolutely unprecedented.”
He said more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th, 2023, representing 43 per cent of all Palestinians killed there in the last 20 years.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said 250 people have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire and there have been 282 breaches. He said those deaths were equivalent to 10 per cent of the entire deaths in the Irish Civil War. “What is happening only highlights all the more the need for the Bill,” he said. “There is no accountability for Israel.”
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman, a minister in the last government, said he had received the same legal advice as the Taoiseach from the Attorney General last year.
“I can say there was absolutely no reference within that legal advice for a need to make a distinction between goods and services.”
