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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Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

The Aire is welcome. I commend Senator Black on all the work she has done. I welcome Brian and Conor O'Neill to the Gallery.
I do not wish to spend my time this evening stating the obvious, but in these circumstances, it is hard not to do so. Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal. They have been ruled to be illegal not by me, Opposition parties, the Government or Senator Black, who, as everyone has acknowledged, brought forward a more perfect version of this Bill. Those settlements have been ruled illegal by the ICJ. This Bill only applies to the trade and importation of goods from the occupied territories. It does not apply to services or exports, yet the highest court available to the United Nations is unequivocal in stating that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal.
The same court, in paragraph 278 of its ruling, demanded that states should no more trade with these settlements and services than we should in goods. We should no more export services than we should import figs or dates. This is explicitly stated. All states are under an obligation "to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings" and they are "to prevent trade or investment relations" with the settlements. It is not only our legal obligation not to engage in trade with the occupied territories in our own name, but it is also our legal obligation under international law to prevent others from doing so. If we do not comply with this paragraph of the ruling, we are in breach of international law.
In many ways, Ireland and Israel have similar economies. Both are modern, open economies with a much higher value on services than goods. This Bill only applies to the trade and importation of goods from the occupied territories. It does not apply to the importation or exportation of services. Ironically, there would be less of a breach of the ICJ ruling if we allowed the importation of goods and outlawed the export of services.
While the Government argued that EU law prevents us from acting, Spain has proven that if the will is there to outlaw the advertisement of services, such as Airbnb, it can be done under existing EU legislation. We, along with the rest of the EU, outlawed the trade of both goods and services in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine within months of the invasion. We showed that the practical identification and outlawing of trade in services in specific geographical areas of a wider range was possible. Why do we not have the political will to do this to Israel? Senior Israelis have frequently slandered Ireland and our leaders, including the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, and former President Michael D. Higgins, as being antisemitic. It goes without saying that we, as a State, and those three individuals are not antisemitic. I trust and hope that we will always continue to challenge the scourge antisemitism, just as with any other form of racism. These slurs are used as a form of bullying as a means to enrage US politicians and to direct our foreign policy. The consequences of these utterly untrue allegations have caused Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents in government to prevaricate and it has deterred us from concrete economic actions that would underline our diplomatic criticism of the behaviour of the State of Israel and of its proxy militias among the settler movement.
Settler militias and settler-only units of the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, continue to extend the occupation to fresh areas of Palestinian land. They continue to expel the inhabitants and ethnically cleanse ever greater areas of Palestine. I, too, have been to Palestine. Our State is not the state that is guilty of systematic, genocidal racism. We should not be afraid to follow up our words with economic actions. The occupied territories Bill should include imports, exports, goods and services. Unfortunately, this weakened version before us today does less than half a job.

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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