Reacting to reports that Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in Dáil Éireann yesterday that trade in services might not be covered in the Occupied Territories Bill, Stephen Bowen, Executive Director of Amnesty Ireland called on Ireland to do the right thing. Mr Bowen said:
“This would be a profound mistake and bitter blow to Palestinians. Any decision to continue to support Irish trade in services with illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, especially at this critical moment in history, is simply wrong, wrong, wrong. Whatever happened to the game-changing advisory opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice in July 2024? The ICJ made it crystal clear that Israel’s 57-year occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory is in flagrant violation of international law, and that all states – including Ireland – must cease all forms of aid or assistance that help maintain the unlawful occupation, including all trade with illegal settlements.
“The international community’s failure to take any meaningful action has emboldened the Israeli Government. Israel has brazenly defied the September 2025 deadline set by UN General Assembly resolution for ending its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Instead, it continues to escalate its occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories, illegal land grabs in the occupied West Bank, and authorising the construction of more and more settlement units in occupied and illegally annexed East Jerusalem.
“What sort of signal will Ireland be sending Israel and the world with this Bill? That we will live up to our obligations under international law, or that states can be selective in its application? We need our Government to do the right thing. The time for brave and decisive action is now, if Ireland is not to be complicit in fundamental breaches of the international standards it has so long championed.”