{"id":65187,"date":"2025-09-15T09:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/65187\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T09:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:40:11","slug":"ngos-accuse-european-governments-and-businesses-of-ignoring-law-on-occupied-territories-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/65187\/","title":{"rendered":"NGOs accuse European governments and businesses of ignoring law on occupied territories \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coalition of non-governmental organisations will today launch a new report accusing European governments and businesses of ignoring international law regarding trade with occupied Palestinian<\/a> territories.<\/p>\n

The organisations, including Oxfam<\/a> and Christian Aid, are calling for trade boycotts of goods and services from firms operating in the occupied lands.<\/p>\n

The report, backed by 75 NGOs, comes ahead of the D\u00e1il\u2019s return on Wednesday, when the Government<\/a> is certain to face calls to quickly pass the Occupied Territories Bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Government sources say they are awaiting updated legal advice from Attorney General Rossa Fanning<\/a> about the possibility of including services, as well as goods, under the remit of the Bill.<\/p>\n

Some Government sources believe it is unlikely the scope of the Bill will be extended to include services. but T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris<\/a> has said he favours doing so if a legally robust method of implementation can be found.<\/p>\n

Mr Fanning\u2019s advice is expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Harris is pushing to gain clarity from the European Commission on when it will move to sanction Israel over its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

It follows Commission President Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s confirmation last week that she will introduce a package of measures responding to Israel\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste has asked EU counterparts who are considering moves on trade to co-sign a letter to the EU High Representative\/Vice President Kaja Kallas urging swift consideration of a package of measures at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. <\/p>\n

In the letter, initiated by the T\u00e1naiste in recent days, Ms Kallas is told Ms von der Leyen\u2019s announcement \u201cpresents a clear opportunity for the EU to take meaningful action\u201d. <\/p>\n

In the NGO-launched report it is claimed the International Court of Justice opinion of last year imposes on states \u201can obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from Israel<\/a>\u2019s illegal presence in the [occupied territories]\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also says the states have an obligation \u201cnot to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel\u2019s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory\u201d and to \u201ctake steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the OPT\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018This land is wonderful for wine\u2019: Israeli settlers strengthen grip on West BankOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, it says that, \u201cdespite these clear obligations, third states continue to engage in as well as to permit trade, services and investments that sustain Israel\u2019s illegal settlement enterprise and broader unlawful occupation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report says Israel\u2019s largest trade partner is the European Union<\/a>, accounting for roughly 32 per cent of its overall trade in goods. The total trade volume (import and export) of goods between Israel and the EU amounted to \u20ac42.6 billion in 2024. The UK is one of Israel\u2019s largest European trade partners, worth just under ST\u00a36 billion (\u20ac6.9 billion) a year in 2024, it says.<\/p>\n

While the EU has implemented a series of measures to restrict trade with the occupied territories, the report says these have been undermined by \u201cinconsistent enforcement\u201d, \u201cevasion by Israeli exporters\u201d and by \u201cdifferentiation and labelling being insufficient to address the issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

To comply with \u201cinternational legal obligations and prevent further complicity in Israel\u2019s illegal settlement project and its unlawful occupation, foreign states must implement prohibitions on trade with settlement-based corporations and revise current policy\u201d, it says. \u201cStates must go further than mere territorial differentiation and labelling, and instead adopt and implement legislation that explicitly bans trade, including the provision of services and investments, with settlements,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n

The report also identifies a number of major international companies that it says do business in the occupied territories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of non-governmental organisations will today launch a new report accusing European governments and businesses of ignoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,4453,71,11,12,15,16,5,7826,45899,72,45898,44,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-65187","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-headlines","13":"tag-international-court-of-justice","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-occupied-territories-bill","21":"tag-oxfam","22":"tag-palestine","23":"tag-rossa-fanning","24":"tag-simon-harris","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65187","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=65187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}