(JNS) A bill to ban goods and services from Judea and Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, advanced in the Irish parliament on Wednesday.

The Irish government stood down on the so-called Occupied Territories Bill, as opposition parties supported a motion in parliament calling on the government to pass the measure before the end of the year.

American officials have signaled that the legislation could have dire consequences for American businesses operating in Ireland, due to laws in the United States penalizing boycotts of Israel, including Israeli-controlled territory outside internationally recognized borders.

“This legislation is unhelpful virtue-signaling,” a US State Department spokesperson told JNS. “It does not serve the cause of peace in the Middle East, which the U.S. and partners are advancing in real time, and could moreover adversely affect American businesses operating in Ireland. We are monitoring developments closely.”

While the value of goods from beyond the so-called Green Line imported into Ireland is relatively negligible, services are a different matter, and proponents of the bill have been debating whether to include them in the final text.

According to RTÉ, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster, Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs, acknowledged on Wednesday that “it is a fragile moment” for the Gaza peace process, and while “we’ve no policy issue with the inclusion of goods and services,” he added that this “must be legally robust” to any legal challenges.

The legislation would put Ireland outside the European Union framework on the banning of the importation of goods from Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, though Byrne said discussions about broader EU action on the matter are ongoing.

‘Contrary to decades of US policy’

Proponents of the bill have criticized the Irish government for perceived stalling in passing the measure and noted that the country’s new foreign minister, Helen McEntee, was not present for debate on the bill on Wednesday.

However, a JNS source with extensive knowledge of the issue, who asked not to be named, said “this legislation would put US companies in breach of US anti-boycott legislation in multiple states and has the potential to damage the relationship between the US and Ireland.”

“Such a boycott is contrary to decades of US policy. Criminalizing the purchase of goods from the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem runs completely counter to the efforts of the administration towards peace negotiations,” the source added.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of international Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that his organization met with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin during the Taoiseach’s visit to Washington in May.

“We were told that the prime minister had expected or hoped that it would not be on the legislative agenda this year, but that simply has proven not true,” Baker said. “I don’t think it reflects a lack of sincerity on his part, but rather the kind of overwhelming political interests in Dublin to make their view known.”

Baker said while the bill has been around in one form or another for five years, the Irish are now “ready to take whatever risk because this is now the position, I think, of the popular electorate.”

He pointed to the recent election of Catherine Connolly as Ireland’s president; she received the overwhelming vote and was inaugurated on Nov. 11. Baker told JNS that the far-left leader “has a very strong anti-Israel line and goes places that we wouldn’t want to see any of our European allies go,” including her labeling of Israel as a “terrorist state.”

‘This is simply performative politics’

Prominent Jewish leader Alan Shatter, who formerly served as both Irish defense minister, and justice and equality minister, told JNS that support of the Occupied Territories Bill “starkly illustrates the Irish government’s complete and utter failure and inability to make any positive contribution of any description to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” and how it has become “completely subservient to the Israel haters.”

Comparing it with the unanimous UN Security Council vote on Monday to codify US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, Shatter told JNS that it “illustrates the difference between positive attempts to resolve the conflict and the Irish government’s commitment to stirring division and simply demonizing the Israeli state.”

He said the government long ago “admitted this bid is just symbolic,” giving lie to claims that the bill’s passage is urgent.

Alan Shatter, an Irish lawyer and politician, visits an army base in Ireland on Sept. 2, 2013. Credit: Irish Defence Forces via Wikimedia Commons.

“They actually know that this is simply performative politics,” said Shatter, adding that Ireland’s Jewish community “has effectively given up on any hope of any even-handed, balanced approach.”

He said the bill, at its heart, is not just anti-Israel but antisemitic.

“If you cut through all the political jurisdictions, what this legislation is about is the Irish government saying that no Jewish person should live or work in east[ern] Jerusalem, in Judea or Samaria or the West Bank, whatever you call it,” Shatter said. “The Irish government thinks it could order Jewish people where they can and cannot live.”

Beyond that, Shatter said one practical effect of the bill is that visitors to Israel will be singled out upon return to Ireland.

“You will be targeted by customs officials who will want to question you to ascertain whether you possibly purchased any goods of any description, for example, in Jerusalem. So by visiting Jerusalem and buying a yarmulke in the market in east[ern] Jerusalem, I could be subject to criminal prosecution.”

By extension, Shatter said, that provision would apply to any Jew, including those entering Ireland from the United States, who could be questioned about the origin of their religious headwear.

“This is a completely bizarre piece of legislation, and it’s basically introducing into Irish law laws that replicate the type of legislation enacted in Nazi Germany in the 1930s,” Shatter told JNS.

Ultimately, given US involvement in issues like the Good Friday Agreement and the effects of Brexit, which served Ireland’s interests positively, Shatter said Dublin is “not only engaging in active political self-harm, but they are entering into a political minefield” that will put them at odds with American industry and, as a result, with American politicians.

“People are forgetting here that Ireland has usually relied on America—not just as a major trading partner, but at times of political difficulty,” Shatter told JNS. “So the Irish government is currently choosing to ignore Israel as a major ally of the United States, and is forgetting that international relations require a degree of reciprocity.”

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