A US congressman has renewed a call for the Government’s proposed Occupied Territories Bill to be withdrawn.
Democratic congressman Josh Gottheimer was behind a letter – cosigned by 22 other members of Congress – which was sent to Taoiseach Micheál Martin last October warning of damage to Irish-US relations if the Government proceeded with the legislation.
Before Occupied Territories Bill was debated in the Dáil on Wednesday, Gottheimer again called for the Bill to be withdrawn.
In a post on X on Tuesday night, he wrote: “In October, I led a bipartisan letter urging Ireland not to move forward with its Occupied Territories Bill”, which he claimed is “an anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) measure.”
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He argued: “Let’s be clear about what this Bill is: a one-sided measure that singles out Israel while ignoring territorial disputes everywhere else in the world.
“And, it could come with a real cost. US companies in Ireland could be forced to choose between complying with Irish law and complying with anti-boycott laws in thirty-eight American states.”
The Government’s proposed legislation – the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 – aims to ban trade in goods between Ireland and illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
The Opposition has been highly critical that it will not also ban the trade in services as proposed in the original version of the Occupied Territories Bill.
In the Dáil on Wednesday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee rejected claims the Government is trying to “water down” the legislationto ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements by not including services.
Introducing the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill, the new version of the Occupied Territories Bill, she insisted the legislation had to be legally robust and able to withstand a challenge. “This would not be the case with respect to services”.
The Bill prohibits the importation of physical goods from specific postcodes of illegal Israeli settlements, which the Minister said could be updated with the creation of new settlements in the West Bank. The ban is estimated to be worth about €250,000 a year.
The Attorney General advised that public policy exemption exists in the EU regulation allowing member states to “adopt prohibitions on the import of goods”.
But there is “no equivalent or similar broad public policy exemption relating to external trade in services”, which includes AirBnB rentals and computer-based trade, worth tens of millions of euro annually.
The Government’s “considered view” was there would be “huge challenges regarding the effective implementation and the enforcement of restrictions on trade and services.
“By its very nature, trade in services is broad, it’s wide ranging” includes digital and intangible services and “subject to a number of different regulatory regimes”.
She added the Government had to take a balanced approach “including consideration of any potential economic consequences”.
Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said it was eight years, four months and six days since Senator Frances Black initiated the Occupied Territories Bill and it should have been law two general elections ago.
Describing the Minister’s legislation as “watered down” and “toothless”, he said there will be circumstances where it could be complex to identify a breach in terms of services “but that doesn’t mean you don’t put it on the statue book”.
Numerous TDs pointed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory ruling making no distinction between goods and services, and the Social Democrats’ Sinéad Gibney said the Bill should be about bringing Ireland into compliance with the ICJ “and this legislation just simply does not achieve that”.
On Tuesday, the Taoiseach was asked if he was aware of any US concerns since it was confirmed the Government’s Occupied Territories Bill was progressing.
“There hasn’t been any increased tempo or anything like that in terms of any communications in respect of it,” Martin replied.
“It’s quite clear that quite a number of people in the US will not be at one mind with us in respect of the Occupied Territories Bill.
“But we’ll communicate the rationale behind it, that it is confined to the Occupied Territories, but also it’s largely, let’s be honest, a symbolic act because the amount of trade between the Occupied Territories in goods and Ireland is very, very, very low,” he said.
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He added: “This is more a symbolic act and I think what would be perhaps more telling is if we could, at European Union level, push for a suspension of the trade association agreement between Israel and the European Union. That perhaps will have a greater impact internationally on Israel.”
