DUBLIN: Ireland\u2019s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic.
\nIreland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, facing pressure at home to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, while Israel and the United States want the bill scrapped.
\nIreland has been one of the European Union\u2019s most outspoken critics of Israel\u2019s assault in Gaza, which authorities in the Palestinian enclave say has killed more than 67,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u2019EXTREMELY LIMITED MEASURE\u2019, SAYS MINISTER
\nBut Thomas Byrne, Ireland\u2019s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defense, told Reuters that the bill is limited to the import of goods and that it would not become law this year.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an extremely limited measure, which would prohibit imports of goods from illegally-occupied territories,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cSimilar measures have already been brought in in a number of European countries.\u201d
\nByrne\u2019s comments give insight into Dublin\u2019s thinking as Ireland seeks to deflect pressure, including from US companies based in the country, to soften its criticism of Israel. Ireland\u2019s bill is expected to help shape how other European nations launch similar curbs on trade with Israeli settlements.
\nThe Irish government has signalled the bill is imminent but has yet to publicly announce its scope.
\nByrne declined to say when it would be sent to parliament, as the government weighs the bill\u2019s implications. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not going to be implemented this year,\u201d he said.
\nEarlier this year, sources told Reuters that the government intended to blunt the law, curbing its scope to just a limited trade of goods, such as dried fruit, and not services.
\nThat more ambitious move could have entangled companies in technology and other industries in Ireland doing business in Israel. Business lobby groups had sought to kill the idea.
\nLimiting the bill to goods only would catch just a handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories such as fruit that are worth just 200,000 euros ($234,660) a year.<\/p>\n
LAWMAKER BLACK SAYS SHE STILL WANTS SERVICES BAN
\nMost of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area. It says the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
\nOn Gaza, Israel says it acted in self-defense following the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has repeatedly said it is committed to international law and tries to minimize harm to the civilian population of Gaza.
\nFrances Black, the lawmaker who proposed the Irish bill, told Reuters she would push to include a ban on services. \u201cIt will take a lot of work in the new year to get services included but that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m prepared to do.\u201d
\nByrne also defended Ireland\u2019s government, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently posted a video online where he accused the Irish government of having an \u201cantisemitic nature.\u201d
\nSaar said the Irish government\u2019s response had been slow to a local proposal to rename a park bearing the name of Chaim Herzog, the former president of Israel who was raised in Dublin.
\nIrish ministers had roundly criticized the idea and Dublin City Council has since delayed a decision on whether to remove the name.
\nUS senator Lindsey Graham had also labelled Ireland a \u201ccesspool of antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
EU LAWMAKER REJECTS ANTISEMITISM CHARGE AS \u2018NONSENSE\u2019
\n\u201cI reject outright that the country is in any way antisemitic,\u201d said Byrne. \u201cWe\u2019re deeply conscious of the contribution that Jewish people have made in Ireland.\u201d
\nIreland\u2019s relations with Israel have been fraught. Last December, Israel shut its embassy in Dublin amid a row over Ireland\u2019s criticism of its war in Gaza, including Ireland\u2019s recognition of a Palestinian state last year.
\nBarry Andrews, an Irish member of the European parliament, urged Dublin to go ahead with its occupied territories bill. \u201cClaims that Ireland is antisemitic are nonsense,\u201d he said. Ireland has nothing to fear. We are no longer the only ones doing this.\u201d
\nOn Wednesday, Ireland\u2019s central bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf was forced to abandon a public speech in Dublin by pro-Palestinian protesters objecting to the central bank\u2019s earlier role in the sale of Israeli bonds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBLIN: Ireland\u2019s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic. Ireland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90927,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90909\/revisions\/90927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}