Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied areas in Palestine
The government of the Republic of Ireland has approved the drafting of a bill to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements – an unprecedented move for a European Union member.
The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is illegal under international law in an advisory opinion that the Irish government said guided its decision.
“The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Ireland’s Foreign Ministry said. “It is the government’s view that this is an obligation under international law.”
The settlements include residential, agricultural and business interests that lie outside Israel’s internationally recognised borders.
Before the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters that he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland’s lead.
“What I hope today is when this small country in Europe makes the decision and becomes one of the first countries, and probably the first country, in the Western world to consider legislation in this space, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us.”
It's a start, one with far too many loopholes of course. Just ban Israeli imports altogether. This is like imposing sanctions on only Russian goods from Crimea.
A report from Amnesty in 2019 cites hundreds of millions in international trade with illegal Israeli settlements. While "Total trade in goods between the EU and Israel in 2024 amounted to €42.6 billion in 2024. EU imports from Israel were worth €15.9 billion, the EU’s exports to Israel amounted to €26.7 billion." And Israel's total trade amounts to 143 billion. So at most the settlements account for 0.2% of Israel's trade.
It is more effective than targeting individual settlers, but still a drop in the ocean, mostly virtue signalling. Ireland imported $3.2bn worth of goods last year from Israel, but no clue how much of that was from settlements.
Anyway it's a start, far too late and too little, but it's a significant start considering what the rest of Europe is not doing.
Days after UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament that he was suspending trade talks with the Netanyahu government over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, Lord Starmer’s trade envoy Lord Ian Austin was visiting Israel to promote trade. Rifat Jawaid asks if the UK government had misled the parliament.
Israel’s longstanding policy of ‘diversion, delusion, distraction and lies’ no longer working
Israel’s programme to drive out Palestinians has always been based on a “rolling process of diversion, delusion, distraction and lies”, but it’s not working anymore, Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, has told Al Jazeera.
“If you see the reaction out of Europe over the last 10 days [to what’s been happening in Gaza], it’s been phenomenal how quickly the flaccid Europeans, who for the past year and a half or so – most of them, with a few exceptions – have said nothing,” he said.
“And suddenly they’re speaking out – including the British, French, and Germans – saying that what Israel is doing is unacceptable, that they’re going to think of sanctions.
“So this is the playbook of Zionism and Israel, and it’s succeeded for a century, but it’s really running out of time now.”
I'm not that optimistic :/ Considering how long it took Europe to start helping out Ukraine better and still not sufficient....
