Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Is mór é domsa an Bille seo a fheiceáil ar an gclár inniu. Is fada an t-achar ó tháinig sé os ár gcomhair i bhfoirm eile in 2018. Is fearr déanach ná go brách, i ndáiríre. Is mian liom tagairt a dhéanamh den mhéid oibre atá déanta ag mo chomhghleacaí, an Seanadóir Frances Black. Rinne sí sárobair ar an gcás seo agus d’oibrigh sí go dúthrachtach ag cur na hargóinte chun cinn, ag déanamh oideachais agus ag feabhsú an cháis i measc na Seanadóirí agus níos forleithne ná sin.
After a long gestation, this Bill is being introduced and falls within the category more of gesture than efficacy. That is not to say the Bill is not important or worthwhile. Nor is it a dissipation of precious parliamentary time, as some hereabouts might claim. No, it has, and may well have in times to come, a significance and prominence way beyond the parameters of our Houses, coming, as it does, from a widespread feeling of unease at the very lowest gradation and across-the-board revulsion amid our people at the mindset of the current Israeli Government and its smiting of the Palestinian people and the decimation of their homelands over the past three years, in particular.
In June 2027, it will be 60 years since the Six-Day War, when most of Ireland and much of the western world celebrated heartily the outstanding Israeli blitzkrieg against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It was then, plucky little Israel against the combined might of the Arab hordes. Some of us here are old enough to remember those times quite well. Lest we forget, it was a victory enabled by our now European colleagues in France who armed Israel to the teeth. Those Mirage, Mystère, Ouragan and Vautour aircraft and the undoubted skills of the Israeli aircrews generated that famous victory. The end of the brief conflict saw Israel take control of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, captured from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured from Jordan and the Golan Heights, captured from Syria. Inevitably, it also gave rise to possibly up to half a million Palestinian refugees and the first postwar iteration of the so-called West Bank settler dimension that was somewhat lessened by the disengagement policy of Ariel Sharon and his Government in 2005, which saw settlements closed completely in the northern West Bank, around the area of Homesh.
Prime Minister Netanyahu took office in December 2022, with 22 of his 25 Cabinet members from the Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, the Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, Noam and New Hope parties. His emboldened Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, announced within a week that the Government was immediately setting about a multi-part restructuring of the country's legal system. This set off mass protests in Israel that continued for months. Through the springtime, while the media and the public at large were, so to speak, looking the other way, the legal framework created by the 2005 disengagement was significantly altered in March 2023 and slipped through. The Knesset passed legislation that revoked the ban on Israelis entering the evacuated West Bank areas, thus opening the door for settlers to return to these specific sites, such as Homesh in the northern section. This marked a major reversal of the 2005 policy of disengagement.
During the past three and a half years, the Israeli Government has accelerated the de facto annexation of the West Bank through a systematic transformation of the control regime. This includes settlement expansion, the displacement of Palestinian communities, the retroactive legalisation of outposts and increased control over areas previously the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority. The Government has provided extensive and sustained funding, particularly for unauthorised outposts, while retroactively legalising them and facilitating the takeover of the land.
Between 2023 and 2025, 185 new outposts were established in the West Bank, most of them agricultural settlements and so-called Hilltop Youth outposts. Together, they now control more than 1 million dunams or approximately 250,000 acres, or about 18% of the total area of the West Bank. One hundred and eighteen Palestinian communities and shepherding clusters, that is, residential areas, some of which are part of those same communities, were systematically displaced. The residents left their homes due to settler violence, restrictions on access to water and a lack of protection from the authorities, which prevents Palestinians from returning.
Settlers erected fences along roads spanning at least 50 km. Massive fences were placed, mainly in the Jordan Valley and in areas used by those communities, thereby, in effect, cutting off hundreds of thousands of dunams of land. In recent times, settlers have taken control of at least 11,000 dunams, or approximately 3,000 acres, of agricultural land, including fields, orchards and vineyards. Until recently, much of that land was cultivated by Palestinians, who have been latterly either displaced from the area or prevented from accessing their property.
That takes us to the nub of what we are talking about today. How should we regard and deal with what is now becoming an everyday reality on the West Bank? The Bill before us is a response, albeit a far from perfect one, to the predations of the Israeli Cabinet, spurred on by its cheerleaders, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and, of course, ably buttressed by a Prime Minister who fiendishly clings to power with the support of the aforementioned apartheid notables. As I said at the outset, the Bill is more symbolic than tangible. It is a measure with which we in Ireland can display to the world our belief in the immorality and illegality of Israel's actions in the West Bank. Whether it deals with produce or produce and services, it is still likely, because of the quantum involved, to be just what I said, namely, a largely symbolic gesture.
However, symbolism is hugely important. It is important beyond belief before the eyes of the world. We cannot just stand idly by and allow a wholesale land grab in the West Bank to rip ahead and not, as a people, decry such behaviour before a disbelieving world. For that reason, the Bill merits support. As the Minister said, it will very definitely focus the attention of many nations, particularly our European partners, on the Israeli plans to scupper for all time the two-state solution long held dear by right-thinking people. In so doing, any tentative hope of peace in our time sa Mheánoirthear becomes further from reality. As the Minister said, it is a widely accepted fact that, unless this problem is sorted out once and for all, there will never be peace in that area or, indeed, anywhere in the world.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:10+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08