Government to draft Bill to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
The Government is to draft legislation to ban the trade of goods with Palestinian lands illegally occupied by Israeli settlements.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris received Cabinet approval to draft the law on Tuesday.
It is understood the Government bill will ban the trade of goods but not services as the basis in EU law is much weaker for services than it is for goods.
The Government has opted for fresh legislation instead of progressing the Occupied Territories Bill, first tabled in 2018.
The Government has said there is “a narrow pathway”, based on an advisory opinion from the UN’s top court, to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said last July that countries should “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations” that maintain Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, which it deemed illegal.
Mr Harris said that the Government had “not yet been able to identify the narrow pathway on services” but that there is a legal “pathway” to ban the trade of goods.
He said he believed Ireland would become the first country in the western world to consider such legislation and said he hoped it would encourage other countries to do likewise.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil that there is “very little” trade between Ireland and the occupied territories but said the ban was an important symbolic move.
He was responding to questions from Social Democrats TD Sinead Gibney who said that the Dáil was “running out of time” to the goods ban before the summer recess.
“Just for the record, there is no major trade between Ireland and the occupied territories, there is very little actually,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Tuesday.
He added: “But that’s not the point, the point is it is a symbolic move and that is important in itself.”
In relation to Sinn Féin’s bill that aims to give Ireland’s Finance Minister the powers to impose restrictive measures on securities issued by or on behalf of Israel, the Government said the proposals were “unworkable”.
Mr Martin said the legislation proposed by Sinn Féin was “simply unworkable” and “has been written in a manner that in no shape or form could ever be made workable”.
He said it does not focus on Israel “at all” and said the review of the EU-Israel Association could have a “far greater influence”.
A Government spokesperson said the proposed Sinn Féin bill was asking for an activity that does not take place in Ireland – Israeli bonds are not listed on the Irish Stock Exchange nor are they available to purchase through any regulated entity in the State – to end.
The spokesperson said that the bill does not prevent securities or bonds from the Israeli state being issued nor does it prevent Israel from raising money by selling bonds.
