Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

I also acknowledge the Palestinian ambassador for joining us, Senator Black and her team and Conor O'Neill for the incredible for the incredible work they have done for the last eight years, and all the activists because they are the people who have actually got us to this stage. Without the continued political pressure from everyday people in Ireland, I do not believe we would be here.
The Minister said last week and again today that there is a view that we are not going far enough. As I said last week, it is not that there is a view that we are not going far enough, it is that we are just not compliant with international law. We are not meeting our obligations under international law. I cannot believe we are passing legislation which is knowingly non-compliant with international law. Mark Rubio recently said the ICC was waging a war with the US through international law. We have a situation where international law on every corner is being utterly undermined globally and we participate in that by passing legislation that does not meet that threshold or standard. By the Minister and her Department acknowledging that we are only partially compliant, we are actually contributing to the erosion of international law. We are on the precipice of a changing world order, where people in the US, like Marco Rubio, say that the institutions that uphold international law, such as the ICC, are wrong and are waging a war on the US. Up is down and left is right. It is absolute chaos. The norms that we rely on are being undermined and we are contributing to that erosion. There are no two ways about it.
We are pushing the weakest form of the Bill. I remind the Minister, as she well knows, that the occupied territories Bill with services was an election promise.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15