{"id":148951,"date":"2026-06-07T08:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/148951\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T08:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:49:08","slug":"ministers-to-study-closely-dail-motions-on-controversial-football-matches-against-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/148951\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers to \u2018study closely\u2019 D\u00e1il motions on controversial football matches against Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said the Government would study closely two motions due before the D\u00e1il<\/a> next week addressing the controversial upcoming soccer matches against Israel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The debate will consider a boycott of Ireland\u2019s Nations League<\/a> matches with Israel this autumn, which have drawn strong criticism. <\/p>\n

Martin said Fifa, the world football governing body, had responsibilities in relation to the games, and that he did not want to see the Republic of Ireland team penalised over any action it may take.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments generally don\u2019t interfere with Fifa, and I would have concerns about Fifa\u2019s capacity to deal with this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should reduce an issue to one particular game or event, and I wouldn\u2019t like to see the Irish team becoming the victim without any impact as a result of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event in Cork on Saturday night, Martin said the European Union<\/a> needed to \u201cdo more\u201d on Israel.<\/p>\n

Ireland had taken a strong stance in respect of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, he said, including recognising the state of Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have been banned from travelling to Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve recognised their state [Palestine], and I believe the European Union needs to do more and the United States needs to keep the pressure on Israel as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s not right\u2019: John O\u2019Shea makes strong statement on Ireland v Israel matchesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said he has written to Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, about the Middle East, particularly over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be that the objective of the Israeli government, unless they can show otherwise, is to keep the people of Gaza in permanent subjugation in the most miserable of circumstances, with no shelter, with no adequate supplies of food or medicine. That\u2019s not acceptable in the modern era.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Government had received no response from either the Israeli or US governments on its decision to bar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. <\/p>\n

Both Ben-Gvir, leader of the right wing Otzemaa Yehudit party, and Smotrich, the leader of the hardline Religious Zionist Party, are both from settler communities in the West Bank and have been among the most outspoken advocates for Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza<\/a> and the West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Government recently condemned Ben-Gvir for releasing a video of himself taunting activists<\/a> from a Gaza aid flotilla after they were detained by Israeli forces in international waters in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mick Lynch: FAI must take a stand and refuse to participate in Israel gameOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be continuing to raise this at European Council level,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI heard president Aoun [of Lebanon] speaking in the last few days very forcefully about what is happening within Lebanon, he\u2019s a man who has done everything he possibly can to re-establish Lebanon, and their sovereignty has now been violated and well, over a million people displaced.\u201d \u2013 Additional reporting: PA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has said the Government would study closely two motions due before the D\u00e1il next week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[39486,1092,37,3998,4004,17110,498],"class_list":["post-148951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-dail-eireann","tag-european-union","tag-israel","tag-micheal-martin","tag-nations-league","tag-occupied-territories-bill","tag-palestine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116707967780723296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}