Irish minister defends ‘extremely limited’ curbs to trade with West Bank settlements |
Ireland’s planned curbs on trade with Israeli West Bank settlements will be limited strictly to importing goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal regarding the scope of the contested legislation while rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic.
Ireland, one of Israel’s harshest critics in Europe during the two years of war in Gaza, has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the 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.
But Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s 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.
“It’s an extremely limited measure, which would prohibit imports of goods from illegally occupied territories,” he said in an interview. “Similar measures have already been brought in in a number of European countries.”
Byrne’s comments give insight into Dublin’s thinking as Ireland seeks to deflect pressure, including from US companies based in the country, to soften its criticism of Israel. Ireland’s bill is expected to help shape how other European nations seek to launch similar curbs on trade with Israeli settlements.
The Irish government has signaled that the bill is imminent but has yet to publicly announce its scope. Byrne declined to say when it would be sent to parliament, as the government weighs the bill’s implications. “It’s certainly not going to be implemented this year,” he said.
Earlier 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.
A bill........