{"id":602373,"date":"2026-07-24T17:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602373\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:48:14","slug":"us-embassy-says-occupied-territories-bill-risks-real-unintended-consequences-and-is-unhelpful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/602373\/","title":{"rendered":"US embassy says Occupied Territories Bill ‘risks real unintended consequences’ and is ‘unhelpful’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 39 mins ago\n <\/p>\n

THE US EMBASSY in Ireland has said the Occupied Territories Bill \u201crisks real unintended consequences\u201d for nearly a thousand American companies and \u201cthe hundreds of thousands of Irish jobs tied to them\u201d.<\/p>\n

The embassy released a statement this evening criticising the bill, which\u00a0passed last week<\/a>\u00a0and was signed into law by President Catherine Connolly on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the goal is to make a meaningful difference for Palestinians, the focus should be on coordinated international efforts that deliver real impact, not symbolic measures that harm Ireland\u2019s economy and will not advance peace,\u201d the embassy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge Ireland to avoid pushing similarly unhelpful initiatives at the EU-level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-awaited bill was first proposed by senator Frances Black in 2018.<\/p>\n

Now called the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026, it makes the importation of goods originating in certain Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank a criminal offence.<\/p>\n

In its original form, it sought to implement a full ban on goods and services with the occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

But services was dropped, a move which has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and Frances Black, who has said<\/a>\u00a0she will be \u201cfighting tooth and nail\u201d to get a ban on the trade of services with illegal Israeli settlements passed in September.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said such a ban\u00a0was \u201csimply not implementable\u201d and would also \u201cpotentially damage Ireland more than anybody else in terms of potential impacts on US multinationals here, back in America\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not including services goes against the recommendation of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, whose members include government party members, who recommended that services be included.<\/p>\n

Last year<\/a>, a group of US politicians urged the country\u2019s treasury secretary Scott Bessent to examine if the bill would breach American anti-boycott laws.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s allies in the US also sent a letter to the Taoiseach<\/a> last year urging him not to pass the bill, arguing it would \u201ceconomically target\u201d and \u201cdemonise\u201d the Israeli state.<\/p>\n

In the letter, which was signed by 23 members of congress, they said they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about Ireland\u2019s characterisation of Israel\u2019s actions in Palestine as genocide.<\/p>\n

The politicians said if the bill passed, it would amount to \u201csingling out Israel\u201d, making it a \u201cpariah\u201d on the world stage.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Outrageous threat\u2019<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Journal, senator Frances Black said:\u201cI have no interest in advice on what can make \u2018a meaningful difference for Palestinians\u2019 from the Ambassador of a State that has armed and funded their genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Irish people are committed to justice, accountability and respect for international law, as are the Palestinian colleagues and friends I\u2019ve been proud to work with. We\u2019ll keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

People Before Profit\u2019s Paul Murphy has said that the government should tell the Trump administration to \u201cback off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murphy said the statement from the US embassy is an \u201coutrageous threat against Ireland\u201d and that it is \u201ctotally unacceptable for the Trump administration to make such threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that while the Israeli Settlements Bill is \u201cmuch more limited in its effect than most people wanted, the Irish people will not accept any bullying from Trump and his cronies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland will not take any lectures from a government that has armed and continues to arm genocide,\u201d said Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Irish people have been threatened before and have always stood their ground. We will do so again now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there \u201cmust be no more government kowtowing to the US\u201d and added that it is \u201cunthinkable that the government would invite Trump to Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government should immediately call in the US ambassador and tell him in no uncertain terms that US threats will not be tolerated and that Trump needs to back-off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST UPDATE | 39 mins ago THE US EMBASSY in Ireland has said the Occupied Territories Bill \u201crisks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,51759,18,13,14,6,19,17,254673,11,12,15,16,5,7826,7,8,172656],"class_list":["post-602373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-criticism","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israeli-settlements-bill","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-us-embassy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602373","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=602373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}