{"id":600810,"date":"2026-07-23T19:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/600810\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T19:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:51:11","slug":"governments-occupied-territories-bill-signed-into-law-by-president-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/600810\/","title":{"rendered":"Government\u2019s Occupied Territories Bill signed into law by President \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s version of the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> \u2013 which bans trade in goods, but not services, with illegal Israeli<\/a> settlements on Palestinian<\/a> land \u2013 has been signed into law by President Catherine Connolly<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The legislation passed all stages of the Houses of the Oireachtas last week after failed last-ditch attempts by the Opposition to include services in the Bill before the summer recess. <\/p>\n

On Thursday a statement from \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in said: \u201cHaving considered the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026, the President has signed the Bill and it has accordingly become law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original Occupied Territories Bill, put forward by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018, was aimed at banning trade in both goods and services.<\/p>\n

It was stalled by successive governments over concerns it could fall foul of EU<\/a> trade rules.<\/p>\n

However, the last coalition sought fresh legal advice after the International Court of Justice<\/a> issued a non-binding advisory opinion stating that Israeli settlements in the West Bank<\/a> and East Jerusalem were in breach of international law.<\/p>\n

After the 2024 general election, the new Government committed to progressing legislation prohibiting trade in goods from occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

While the legislation was being debated in June, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> said the legal advice she received from the Attorney General \u201cdoes not say that it is impossible\u201d to include services in the Bill. <\/p>\n

However, the advice suggested the legal basis for a ban on services was not as strong as a ban on goods alone. It was also unclear how the Government would implement a ban on the trade of services, she said.<\/p>\n

Two Opposition amendments tabled last week in the Seanad that attempted to add services to the Bill but were defeated when Senators voted on them. A similar proposal had also previously failed at committee stage in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

During last week\u2019s Seanad debate Black accused the Government of \u201cconsciously letting large companies providing tech, IT, and other services-based trade off the hook\u201d and said: \u201cto me, that is a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connolly was a supporter of Black\u2019s proposed legislation during her previous role as an Independent TD representing Galway West. <\/p>\n

During last year\u2019s presidential election campaign she was asked by the joe.ie website about the possibility that, as president, she would have to sign a watered-down version of the legislation that did not include services. <\/p>\n

Connolly responded saying she was \u201cfully aware of the restrictions on a President\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have very strong opinions on the Occupied Territories Bill and I\u2019ll never shy away from expressing those opinions as a TD,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Occupied Territories Bill should have been enacted a long time ago on goods and services and Senator Black has done tremendous work.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Connolly also said articles in the Constitution that \u201cset out the possibilities for a president and also the restrictions\u201d. She said an important role of the President is to sign legislation into law but also that \u201clegislation is for the Government and for the D\u00e1il\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government\u2019s version of the Occupied Territories Bill \u2013 which bans trade in goods, but not services, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,4767,18,2219,13,14,6,14370,19,4453,17,71,11,12,15,16,5,7826,72,12417,7,8,1918],"class_list":["post-600810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-dail-eireann","tag-eire","tag-european-union","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-international-court-of-justice","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-palestine","tag-seanad-eireann","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116971037484835432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600810","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=600810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}