The UK Just Toughened Sanctions on Israeli Settlements. Why Won’t Ireland?
The UK Just Toughened Sanctions on Israeli Settlements. Why Won’t Ireland?
Text: Izzy Copestake
If the Irish government is as serious as it claims to be in opposing the expansion of illegal settlements, then it shouldn’t be waiting for countries like the UK to do it first.
Yesterday, the UK government announced that they will be banning goods and some services from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In a speech in parliament, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Palestine. Significantly, this announcement regarding the ban of some services means that the UK’s measures will go further than Ireland’s Occupied Territories Bill, which only bans goods.
This has sparked criticism from some Irish TDs. “The UK Government’s decision to ban trade in goods and some services from illegal Israeli settlements should be a wake-up call for the Irish Government,” said Duncan Smith TD, Labour foreign affairs spokesperson. “Ireland has rightly spoken up about Palestine and international law, but those words must now be matched by the strongest possible action.”
After Ed Miliband’s speech, France, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Ireland shared a joint statement with the UK in support of the two-state solution and announcing an intention to impose restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. However, there has been no confirmation as of yet as to whether that means that Ireland will introduce a strengthened Occupied Territories Bill which includes a ban on services.
In response to the UK’s announcement yesterday, Israel has moved to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, removed British officials from the US-led Gaza coordination mission, ended British training of Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, and banned 12 British politicians and citizens from Israel.
On July 8th this year, a watered-down version of Ireland’s original Occupied Territories Bill passed without a vote in the final stage of the Dáil. This bill did not ban trade with Israel, it only banned trade with the goods manufactured within the Israel-occupied areas of Palestine. Crucially, this bill lacked a mention of services.
Ireland is a largely service based economy, so a large amount of the economic interaction between Ireland and Israeli occupied territories were unaffected by this bill. It is estimated that almost 70% of Ireland’s economic trade with Israel is in services, which have continued as normal.
At the time, the Irish government defended their decision to exclude services from the bill on legal grounds. However, the exclusion was strongly contested by protest groups and the opposition. Many opposition TDs at the time argued that Ireland is able to restrict services in other sanction regimes, the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion, and highlighted that the Government’s own legal advice did not require a distinction between goods and services.
Ireland has consistently positioned itself as one of the strongest supporters of Palestinian voices, and continues to draw parallels between its own colonial history and that of Palestine. However, when it comes to actioning the economic measures which will actually impact Israel’s genocidal regime, Ireland is falling short. If the Irish government is as serious as it claims to be in opposing the expansion of illegal settlements, then it shouldn’t be waiting for countries like the UK to do it first.
