Ireland curbs on trade with Israeli settlements limited to goods

Ireland’s 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 antisemitism accusations.

Ireland 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.

Ireland has been one of the European Union's most outspoken critics of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in acts labelled as genocide.

But Thomas Byrne, Ireland's Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, 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 launch similar curbs on trade with Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.

The Irish government has signalled 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.

That 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.

Limiting 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.

Lawmaker Black says she wants ban on services

Frances Black, the lawmaker who proposed the Irish bill, told Reuters she would push to include a ban on services. "It will take a lot of work in the new year to get services included but that's exactly what I'm prepared to do."

Byrne also defended Ireland's government, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar recently posted a video online where he accused the Irish government of having an "antisemitic nature".

Sa'ar said the Irish government's 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.

Dublin City Council has delayed a decision on whether to remove the name.

EU lawmaker rejects antisemitic accusations as 'nonsense'

"I reject outright that the country is in any way antisemitic," said Byrne. "We're deeply conscious of the contribution that Jewish people have made in Ireland."

Barry Andrews, an Irish member of the European parliament, urged Dublin to go ahead with its occupied territories bill. "Claims that Ireland is antisemitic are nonsense," he said. Ireland has nothing to fear. We are no longer the only ones doing this."

Ireland has emerged as a staunch critic of Israel following the war in Gaza, condemning Tel Aviv for its atrocities inflicted on Palestinians, and going to recognise a Palestinian state, boycotting Eurovision next year over Israel's participation, and joining South Africa in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.