Department accused of pushing Occupied Territories Bill into ‘purgatory’

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been accused of pushing the Occupied Territories Bill into “legislative purgatory” after it “diluted” its strategy ambitions for 2029.

The department has said it wants to “progress” a prohibition on goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territory by 2029, a change from last year’s goal to “enact legislation banning imports” from the settlements.

The Government has committed to enacting its own version of the 2018 Occupied Territories Bill, which originally sought to ban import of goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements.

The coalition’s Bill has focused on a ban of goods and is listed under “priority publication” in the spring legislative programme.

Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed last July.

Concerns have been raised that the Government’s legislation would include only restrictions on goods and not services in illegal Israeli settlements.

The Government has said covering services is more legally complex, and has sought advice from the Attorney General on the matter.

On Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs updated its ambitions around banning imports from illegal settlements as it published a Statement of Strategy for 2026-2029.

Under its goal of responding to a “changing geopolitical context”, the department said last year that it wanted to “enact legislation banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

In its updated strategy published on Tuesday, the department changed the wording to: “Progress legislation prohibiting goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman Duncan Smith said that “this dilution of language and focus solely on goods” reflects the Government’s “broken promise to enact the Occupied Territories Bill”.

Speaking to the Press Association, he said: “It is clear the Government has consigned this legislation to a legislative purgatory with no indication of when it will come before the Dáil.

“They have ignored solid legal advice we heard during pre-legislative scrutiny which stated that services could be included.

“To lengthen the time horizon up to 2029 just gives a further signal that this Government are not committed to enacting this Bill.”

People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said the change of wording was “despicable”.

Speaking to the Press Association, he said: “This is a shameful dilution of an already pathetically inadequate commitment to sanction Israel by this government.

“Clearly this changed wording is about excluding services from any ban on imports from the occupied territories, massively subverting an already minimal proposed sanction on Israel.

“When we need to ramp up the severity of sanctions on Israel for its ongoing genocidal crimes, the Irish government is trying to minimise the impact of any sanctions – it’s despicable.”

The department and a spokesperson for the Minister for Foreign Affairs have been contacted for comment.