But it’s not because the Irish government took a stand.

The Central Bank of Ireland will no longer be approving Israeli government bonds, but it’s not because the Government decided to ban them. Instead, Israel has quietly switched to getting its bonds approved in Luxembourg, ending Ireland’s controversial role in the process. New documents from Israel’s bond programme confirm that the Grand Duchy is now the official EU authority green lighting the sales.

The bonds in question, often referred to as “Israel Bonds”, are not typical investment products. They’re sovereign debt securities issued by the Israeli government to raise money from international investors, with the proceeds going straight into Israel’s state budget. What made Ireland’s involvement especially controversial was the way these bonds have been marketed: explicitly as tools to support a nation at war.

Slogans like “Israel is at war” and “Stand with Israel” have been used to promote them, particularly since the escalation of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Campaigners argue that this effectively makes the bonds a fundraising mechanism for military actions that the UN and the International Court of Justice have said may amount to genocide. Despite this, the Central Bank of Ireland renewed its approval of the Israeli bond prospectus in September 2024, a decision that critics said enabled the financing of war crimes. That authorisation was due to be renewed for another year, but instead, Israel is has taken it’s business to Luxembourg.

This shift comes after months of pressure on the Central Bank and the Government from opposition parties and human rights campaigners, who argued that by approving the bonds, Ireland was helping to fund Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The Central Bank confirmed the change in a letter to Mairéad Farrell, chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, noting that its final approval for an Israeli bond expired today. Governor Gabriel Makhlouf reiterated that the Bank had no legal choice but to approve the documents as long as they met EU financial rules.

But critics say that’s not good enough.

“The Irish Central Bank, at any stage, should not have been engaged in facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds,” said Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. “There is a genocide at play. We are witnesses to that genocide.”

She added that while she welcomed the fact Ireland is no longer involved, the Government had “never, ever” should have had any part in financing what she described as the “genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Earlier this year, Sinn Féin tried to push legislation through the Dáil to stop the Central Bank from approving these bonds. The Government voted it down. At the time, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe defended the decision, saying Ireland was committed to international law, but critics said that wasn’t backed up by action.

Even as recently as last month, a cross-party Finance Committee had called on the Central Bank to review its ability to reject future requests from Israel. The Labour Party went further, saying the State had been “tacitly complicit” in helping Israel raise funds while bombs were falling on Gaza.

Although the government did not end the sale of the bonds through Israel, Israel’s decision to end that relationship does follow a year of mounting public and political pressure in Ireland from the people. Opposition parties and pro-Palestinian groups had repeatedly called for the Central Bank of Ireland to cease facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds, arguing that such facilitation made Ireland complicit in actions they deemed to be violations of international law. Although Israel has not publicly stated the reasons for moving their sales to Luxembourg, the shift does coincide with rising public outrage in Ireland.

This move effectively ends Ireland’s involvement in approving Israeli war bonds for the EU market. But for campaigners and opposition TDs, it’s a bittersweet outcome: a problematic role has ended, but not because the Irish government took a stand.

Elsewhere on District: Hodges Figgis Staff Accuse Waterstones of Suppressing Solidarity With Palestine