Skip to main content

Ireland to ban goods from Israeli settlements in West Bank by July

Ireland aims to pass a law curbing goods trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by mid-July, with Israel, some US lawmakers and business groups opposing the move, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said on Tuesday.

Ireland’s government, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war on Gaza, first promised to sanction Israeli settlements in October 2024.

The legislation has since been held up by pressure from opposition politicians who aimed to extend the ban also to the services trade, on one side, and international company lobbyists seeking to scrap the bill, on the other.

Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited to goods. Prime Minister Micheal Martin confirmed that last week and said widening the scope to services was neither “implementable” nor “viable”.

Limiting the bill to goods only will impact just a handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories, such as fruit that are worth just €200,000 ($234,660) a year, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said.

Business groups warned that the wider category of services could pull foreign multinational companies into unworkable sanctions.

“We have consistently advocated for a peaceful solution… but it’s very clear from the actions taken most recently by the Israeli government, but in particular the continued increase in settler violence, the escalation in settler violence in the West Bank, the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to take this particular road,” McEntee told reporters.

Israel’s far-right governing coalition has enabled a rapid expansion of settlements, with some ministers openly advocating for the annexation of the West Bank.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

McEntee said last week she hoped to pass the law in tandem with Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly Slovenia, which have also committed to introducing bans.

Spain has already introduced similar curbs, the only European Union member to do so so far. A group of US lawmakers wrote to Martin last year, warning that passing the bill would damage US-Irish relations and impact American companies in Ireland.

Ireland is particularly sensitive to pressure from the US, as mainly US-owned foreign multinationals are a major part of the economy and employ around 11 per cent of Irish workers.

Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, claiming biblical ties to the area and insisting that they provide strategic depth and security.



from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/aLcsfGA
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ministers rubbish notion that proposed retirement age extension to favour ‘one particular institution’

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rubbished the notion that a proposed extension in the retirement age was to favour “one particular institution”, adding that the move would be implemented across the board if approved. The rebuttal comes in the wake of media reports claiming that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice . Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution. While giving his opinion recently on the reports of the constitutional amendment, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”. Addressing the issue during a press conference in Islamabad today along since Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the law minister, Attaullah said the extension in the retirement age was “a proposal to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Explainer: Iran’s economy faces rocky road amid rising prices, falling currency

Iran’s economy is going through one of its most difficult periods in years, fueled by sanctions, high inflation, and a significant drop in the value of the national currency, the rial. These pressures have had a direct impact on living standards and have also fueled recent protests. The protests began on Dec. 28 in commercial hubs in the capital Tehran, when shopkeepers, merchants, and small business owners staged strikes and demonstrations to protest soaring inflation, the collapsing rial, and deteriorating economic conditions, and have since grown into nationwide anti-government expressions of discontent involving workers, students, and others across multiple cities. The Iranian president said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems amid the protests. Masoud Pezeshkian said the government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially on the economy. Currency collapse at the centre of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitchell Starc surpasses Wasim Akram as most prolific left-arm pacer in Test history

Australian veteran Mitchell Starc became the most prolific left-arm paceman in Test history on Thursday, surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram. The 35-year-old bagged England’s Harry Brook at the Gabba in Brisbane on day one of the day-night second Ashes Test for his 415th wicket since his debut at the same ground 14 years ago. It moved him past Wasim, widely recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler the sport has seen. Wasim played 104 Tests for his 414 wickets with Starc reaching the milestone in his 102nd, helped by a career-best 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Ashes Test at Perth. Starc is now 16th on the all-time wicket-taker list and could move above both India’s Harbhajan Singh (417) and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock (421) in the current pink-ball Test. After that he will have New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (431) in his sights. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/xclHiX2
Post a Comment
Read more