Dublin, Ireland. Ireland aims to pass a law curbing goods trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by mid-July, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said on Tuesday, despite opposition from Israel, some U.S. lawmakers and business groups.
Legislation limited to goods
Ireland’s government, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, first promised to sanction Israeli settlements in October 2024. The legislation has been delayed by pressure from opposition politicians who wanted to extend the ban to services trade and by international company lobbyists seeking to scrap the bill.
Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited to goods. Prime Minister Micheal Martin confirmed that last week and said widening the scope to services was neither “implementable” nor “viable.”
Limiting the bill to goods only will affect just a handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories, such as fruit, worth about 200,000 euros ($234,660) a year, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said.
Business groups warned that including services could pull foreign multinational companies into sanctions they said would be unworkable.
Government stance and regional context
“We have consistently advocated for a peaceful solution… but it’s very clear from the actions taken most recently by the Israeli government, but in particular the continued increase in settler violence, the escalation in settler violence in the West Bank, the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to take this particular road,” McEntee told reporters.
Israel’s far-right governing coalition has enabled a rapid expansion of settlements, with some ministers openly advocating annexation of the West Bank.
Settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has increased since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
McEntee said last week she hoped to pass the law alongside Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly Slovenia, which have also committed to introducing bans. Spain has already introduced similar curbs and is the only European Union member to have done so so far.
U.S. concerns
A group of U.S. lawmakers wrote to Martin last year, warning that passing the bill would damage U.S.-Irish relations and affect American companies in Ireland.