{"id":186369,"date":"2025-11-18T02:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186369\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:46:09","slug":"government-will-not-oppose-joint-opposition-motion-on-occupied-territories-bill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186369\/","title":{"rendered":"Government will not oppose joint Opposition motion on Occupied Territories Bill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government will tell the D\u00e1il<\/a> this week it intends to bring forward the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> \u2013 but it has not yet decided whether services can be included in its remit.<\/p>\n

The Coalition will not oppose a joint Opposition motion on Wednesday urging immediate presentation of the Bill and its passage through the Oireachtas before Christmas, sources briefed on the issue said.<\/p>\n

There is no clarity, however, on whether services will be included, as urged by the Opposition, pro-Palestinian<\/a> campaigners and the all-party Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee this summer. <\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> indicated recently in the D\u00e1il that he did not believe it would be legally possible to do so, but it is understood there is no agreement on the issue in Government.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris<\/a> has previously said that he wants to include services in the Bill \u2013 rather than just prohibiting the importation of goods from the occupied Palestinian territories \u2013 if a legally robust way can be found.<\/p>\n

The Government has sought advice from the Attorney General Rossa Fanning on the point, though it has not said if that advice in full has been received.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Opposition to exert pressure on Coalition to include services in Occupied Territories BillOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders accused the Government of \u201cdragging its heels\u201d on the legislation and played down the prospect of consequences for Ireland if the Bill is passed.<\/p>\n

People Before Profit<\/a> is using its D\u00e1il time this week for a joint motion from left-wing parties and Independents calling on the Government to urgently progress the legislation.<\/p>\n

The Government has faced pressure not to proceed from politicians in the US<\/a>, a key ally of Israel.<\/p>\n

A group of US politicians last month wrote to the Taoiseach claiming the legislation would \u201crisk causing significant damage\u201d to the State\u2019s economic credibility and US partnerships.<\/p>\n

During a press conference at Leinster House on Monday, <\/b>Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> argued that there was \u201cabsolutely no plausible excuse for the Government to continue dragging its heels [on the legislation].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that it has to include goods and services. We do not wish to see it diluted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit accused Israel of a \u201cgenocidal massacre\u201d inflicted on the Palestinian people and \u201cdecades of illegal settlements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften the Irish Government claimed that they\u2019re the most supportive of the Palestinian<\/a> cause in Europe,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the truth is now, Spain, Slovenia, other countries have jumped ahead, have passed similar bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there has been \u201cno consequences\u201d or \u201cblowback economically\u201d for such countries.<\/p>\n

Asked if she had concern about the future of Irish-US relations as a result of the legislation, Ms McDonald said Ireland\u2019s relationship with the United States was \u201cdeep and enduring and I believe that that will continue to be the case\u201d citing the \u201cenormous population of Irish-Americans\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not accept for a second that it\u2019s a zero sum game, that either on the one hand we maintain that relationship, or on the other, we do what is necessary and correct [and pass the legislation]. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have to choose between those things.\u201d <\/p>\n

Holly Cairns, the Social Democrats leader, said they were \u201cnot aware of any significant economic impact\u201d in other countries that passed similar legislation but added: \u201cThere is no clause in the Genocide Convention, or loophole that says you don\u2019t have to enact it if there\u2019s any kind of consequence for a country. We\u2019re legally obliged to do this.\u201d <\/p>\n

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said there had been \u201cenough stalling\u201d and noted the Spanish government had brought its equivalent Bill through in four weeks. \u201cIt\u2019s been seven years since the [Occupied Territories Bill] was introduced in the Seanad,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Senator Frances Black, who put forward the original Occupied Territories Bill in 2018 said \u201cwe have an obligation to pass this Bill in its entirety with goods and services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government will tell the D\u00e1il this week it intends to bring forward the Occupied Territories Bill \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,18577,6,47074,71,3857,9170,11,12,15,16,16594,5765,5,7826,72,21030,90612,34887,47,7,8,384,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-186369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-green-party","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-holly-cairns","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","18":"tag-ivana-bacik","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","24":"tag-micheal-martin","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-occupied-territories-bill","27":"tag-palestine","28":"tag-people-before-profit-alliance","29":"tag-richard-boyd-barrett","30":"tag-roderic-o-gorman","31":"tag-sinn-fein","32":"tag-top-stories","33":"tag-topstories","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-world","36":"tag-world-news","37":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}