Published On 5/26/2026
Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said on Tuesday that her country is seeking to pass a law limiting the trade in settlement goods in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by mid-July, amid opposition from Israel, American legislators and business groups to this step.
Ireland is a vocal critic of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, threatening to impose sanctions on Israeli settlements for the first time in October 2024.
McEntee added in statements to reporters: “We have always called for a peaceful solution… but it is very clear from the measures taken by the Israeli government recently, as well as with the continuing increase in settler violence in particular, its escalation in the West Bank, and the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to go down this particular path.”
These statements came at a time when the far-right government coalition in Israel allowed the expansion – at a rapid pace – in the construction of settlements, and some ministers explicitly called for the annexation of the West Bank, amid the escalation of violence committed by settlers against the Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Pressures and tensions
Since last October, a draft law in this regard has been stalled due to pressure from opposition politicians who were seeking to expand the scope of the ban to include trade in services on the one hand, and pressure groups affiliated with international companies seeking to cancel the draft law on the other hand.
The Prime Minister had confirmed last week that the draft law would be limited to goods only, considering that expanding the scope of the ban to include services was neither “enforceable” nor “feasible,” which was in line with warnings from business groups that expanding the scope might expose foreign multinational companies to unworkable penalties.
According to the Irish Central Statistics Office, limiting the draft law to goods will affect a small number of products imported from the territories occupied by Israel, such as fruit worth 200,000 euros (about 234,660 dollars) annually.
On the diplomatic level, the bill faced warnings last year from a group of US Congress members through a letter they addressed to Martin, in which they indicated that passing the law would harm US-Irish relations and affect American companies in Ireland.
On the other hand, last week, McEntee expressed her hope that the law would be passed in cooperation with Belgium, the Netherlands, and perhaps Slovenia, which also committed to imposing the ban, joining Spain, which is the only country in the European Union that has imposed similar restrictions so far, at a time when the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law.
