Attorney General ‘raised no issue’ with services ban with Israeli settlements

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

The Attorney General did not raise an issue with banning services from illegal Israeli settlements, Roderic O’Gorman has said.

The Green Party leader, who was a minister in the last coalition, said that government claims of a legal issue with banning services was “a delaying tactic”.

The Government is examining legislation that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands.

But Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that while there is a legal “pathway” to ban goods, there is an issue with banning services from the occupied territories.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, Mr O’Gorman said that Israel had indicated publicly that it “intends to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip”.

He said that Ireland has “the opportunity to act” and that passing the Occupied Territories Bill would “reverberate internationally”.

“It would be a really significant change in approach, and I have real concerns about this attempt now to create a distinction between goods and services,” he said.

“The Attorney General last July provided a very detailed assessment of Senator Frances Black’s bill, raised some issues, legitimate issues that can be addressed by amendment.

“There was no reference to an issue around services in his very detailed legal advice.

“This is a new issue that has been brought in subsequent to the general election, a general election where Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made extensive commitments about passing the Occupied Territories Bill and, to my mind, it’s a delaying tactic.

“The Government have said they will publish a draft before summer, they haven’t promised to pass it.”

“This is about kicking the can down the road,” he added, adding that the Bill could be passed by the summer “if there was the will”.

Minister of State Hildegarde Naughton said the Government was “certainly not doing that” and referred to “issues around the constitutionality and the legal limitations” of the Bill.

“This is not a policy difference – I want to be very clear – around goods and services, this is about ensuring that we get that legislation right,” she said.

Tnáaiste Simon Harris said during the week that there is “a narrow pathway”, based on an advisory opinion from the UN’s top court, to legislate on banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said countries should “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations” that maintain Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, which it deemed illegal.

Mr Harris said during the week that the Government had “not yet been able to identify the narrow pathway on services, that’s the truth”.

“It’s not a policy position. It’s a legal position,” he said.

Independent Senator Frances Black, who first introduced the Bill to the Irish Parliament in 2018, said she would “not be happy” with a Bill that only banned the trade of goods.

Speaking at a neutrality event in Dublin on Saturday, she said she wanted the Government to stick to its commitment to pass the Bill before the Parliament’s summer recess.

“(Simon Harris) said that he was open to investigating (banning services) and to looking at it so it will be up to us to show them that it is legal.

“We have had lots of lawyers who have looked at this and said 100 per cent, there is no doubt about it, it is legal.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also said her party would not accept a Bill that does not include a ban on services.

She said action is needed to prevent the starvation and killing in Gaza, and “Ireland needs to lead”.

“To cite legal concerns at this stage when this has gone on for so long, this legislation has been on the cards for so very long, to start now saying that they are coming up with legal blocks really isn’t acceptable – and if there are legal concerns, publish your advice,” she said on Saturday.