Brussels – Ireland could become the first EU member state to prohibit the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Irish government will present a draft law tomorrow (27 May) that, if passed, would criminalise the purchase of Israeli products from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas considered illegally occupied by the Jewish state under international law.
The bill, announced by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris, is part of a growing international focus on the situation in Gaza. “It is clear that war crimes are being committed: children are being starved and food is being used as a weapon,” declared Harris to the Financial Times: “The world has not done enough, and we must act.” The Irish proposal represents the first concrete attempt within the EU to introduce a targeted trade restriction against Israeli settlements.
The bill would ban the import of physical goods such as dates, oranges, olives, timber, and cosmetics from Israeli settlements. Products made by Palestinian companies in the same area, such as Zaytoun olive oil, would remain excluded from the measure. Between 2020 and 2024, the total value of Irish imports from these territories was just €685,000, but the scale of the measure is considered highly symbolic. In addition to tangible goods, there is an ongoing legal debate on the inclusion of services, such as tourism and technology. More than 400 Irish academics and lawyers have signed an open letter in support of extending the ban to sectors such as hospitality, pointing out that there are no insurmountable obstacles in Irish, European, or international law to such a measure. If included, the services could involve companies such as Airbnb, which has its European headquarters in Dublin and would therefore be subject to Irish law. In 2019, Airbnb had initially announced the withdrawal of its listings in the occupied territories, only to backtrack following legal cases, eventually deciding to donate profits from those activities to humanitarian organisations. Harris stated that he had no political objection to extending the ban to services, confirming, however, that he had received legal advice that inclusion would currently be impossible.
Although trade is a competence of the European Union, there are exceptions where member states may act autonomously, especially in situations considered to be of ‘extraordinary gravity’. To this end, Ireland refers to an advisory opinion issued last year by the International Court of Justice, according to which states must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
At the EU level, the measure comes just days after a majority of member states voted for a revision of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. A similar request, made by Ireland and Spain in February 2024, had previously been rejected by the European Commission. The EU executive said it would only comment on the proposal once it had been adopted by the Irish parliament and formally transmitted to Brussels. “We want to do something meaningful, but a collective EU action would have a much stronger impact,” Harris noted.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub