{"id":257141,"date":"2025-07-11T20:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T20:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/257141\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T20:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T20:55:14","slug":"government-effort-to-ban-occupied-territories-trade-gets-eu-boost-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/257141\/","title":{"rendered":"Government effort to ban occupied territories trade gets EU boost \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government<\/a>\u2019s plan to ban trade from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian<\/a> territories has been given a boost by senior European Union<\/a> officials, as one option national governments could consider taking to put pressure on Israel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The proposed Occupied Territories Bill<\/a> is expected to be put before the D\u00e1il in the autumn. The legislation would prohibit trading with companies operating in illegal settlements in the West Bank and other occupied territories. <\/p>\n

Now a new paper from the EU\u2019s diplomatic corps has raised the possibility of national governments blocking Israeli trade from occupied territories without needing to wait for unanimous agreement at EU level. <\/p>\n

The document, seen by The Irish Times, sets out various options the EU or its member states could take to put pressure on Israel, which foreign ministers will discuss during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Critics of Ireland\u2019s Occupied Territories Bill had previously argued it would breach EU law, as the European Commission<\/a> has responsibility for the bloc\u2019s trade policy. Recent advice from the Attorney General, however, gave the Government confidence it has grounds to move ahead with the draft law.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0At least 798 people killed while receiving aid in Gaza, UN saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The new paper from the EU\u2019s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, is expected to give further cover to the Government\u2019s proposed legislation. <\/p>\n

The document said the EU had the option of banning imports from settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, if it had the backing of all 27 countries. <\/p>\n

An \u201calternative\u201d would be governments deciding to ban trade coming from the settlements at national level, it said. Officials suggested this would not need EU sign-off, but that some debate about the \u201cpermissibility\u201d of such moves might have to take place between capitals first. <\/p>\n

Conor O\u2019Neill, head of policy at Christian Aid, said the EU\u2019s reference to domestic laws banning trade with Israeli settlements was a \u201creally significant shift\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill, who helped draft the Opposition\u2019s initial version of the Occupied Territories Bill, <\/b>said \u201cfor the first time the EU has recognised that individual member states may ban trade with Israel\u2019s illegal settlements\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Bill was first put on the table by Independent Senator Frances Black in 2018, but was stalled by previous governments. <\/p>\n

Growing pressure to do more during Israel\u2019s 21-month bombardment of Gaza<\/a> saw the Government commit to taking up the legislation. A revised version of the draft law is now making its way through the Oireachtas. <\/p>\n

The EU paper said the union could also consider suspending its \u201cassociation agreement\u201d that governs EU-Israel relations, or shelve a free trade deal Israel enjoys as part of the agreement. The paper was circulated to diplomats from each EU state on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Other possible options on the table are to put economic sanctions on Israeli politicians, an embargo on weapons sales to Israel and cutting off Israel\u2019s access to research funding schemes. <\/p>\n

EU foreign ministers will discuss the proposals next week, but it is unlikely there will be a decision taken to pursue any of the options, given most would need the unanimous support of all 27 capitals. <\/p>\n

Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic have consistently blocked the EU from penalising Israel for its conduct during the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 57,000<\/a> Palestinians. <\/p>\n

Ms Kallas, who chairs the meetings of foreign ministers, was directed to draw up a list of possible ways in which the EU could pressure Israel, to improve the dire conditions on the ground in Gaza. In a bid to avoid possible sanctions, this week Israel gave the EU commitments that it would allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government\u2019s plan to ban trade from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories has been given a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,2557,1699,10982,1234,837,98640,1201],"class_list":{"0":"post-257141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-gaza-strip","14":"tag-government","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-occupied-territories-bill","17":"tag-trade"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114836597754978061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}