Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: The White House via Wikimedia Commons
U.S. President Biden met with Ireland’s President Michael Higgins to participate in a tree-planting ceremony and ring the Peace Bell, April 13, 2023
(JNS) — The new Irish government may scale back an anti-Israel trade policy, while continuing to support international pressure on the Jewish state.
The Irish parliament met on Jan. 22 to discuss and approve the “draft program for government 2025,” which includes a section titled “The Middle East,” focused solely on Israel and the Palestinians.
That section states that the government will “progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories,” referring to a bill that would ban trade with Israelis in Judea and Samaria.
A recent article in The Irish Mail on Sunday stated that the government, despite using the word “progress,” may not advance the bill at all.
“The bill is now unlikely to ever make the statute books amid deepening fears it will damage Ireland’s corporate and diplomatic relations with the U.S.,” stated the article under the headline “Israeli trade ban will be dropped to appease Trump.”
Micheál Martin, the incoming Irish foreign minister, told The Irish Times on Jan. 19 that “virtually every section” of the existing Occupied Territories Bill will need to be amended. “It is acknowledged by all sides that the bill was unconstitutional as drafted, and in other areas, it was deficient.”
In addition to addressing the Israel-Ireland trade policy, the government program states that Ireland will continue to support South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide, and plans to continue a call for a “review” of the free-trade agreement between Israel and the European Union.
It also states that it will “give effect” to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and implement the E.U. declaration on “Fostering Jewish Life in Europe.” Martin announced last week that the government had adopted both, but received activist pressure against the move. He emphasized in a later statement, however, that the decisions are “non-legally binding.”
In December, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar ordered the closure of Israel’s embassy in Dublin due to “antisemitic actions and rhetoric” consistently undertaken by the Irish government.
