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Oireachtas

Occupied Territories Bill banning trade in goods but not services passed by Dáil without vote

Paul Murphy accuses Coalition of trying to ‘absolutely gut’ legislation as he objected to debate being restricted to 90 minutes

An attempt by the Opposition to include a ban on trade in services in illegal settlements in postcodes where the legislation will apply has been rejected.

The Dáil has passed without a vote, legislation to ban the import of goods but not services from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The lsraeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill will go to the Seanad for debate next week, to be concluded before the summer recess.

Independent Senator Frances Black introduced the first Occupied Territories Bill eight years ago to ban trade in goods and services and has championed the legislation since 2018.

She sat in the Dáil visitors’ gallery to observe proceedings during the 90-minute debate on the report and final stages of the Government’s Bill.


The Government has been sharply criticised for failing to include services in the Bill and People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy accused the Coalition of trying to “absolutely gut” the legislation as he objected to debate being restricted to 90 minutes.

“This is a Bill both Government parties said during the general election that they would support” but they “do not want time to discuss it because they do not want” it to be exposed that they were trying to gut it.

An attempt by the Opposition to include a ban on trade in services in illegal settlements in postcodes where the legislation will apply has been rejected.

The amendment from Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Green Party was voted down by the Government and most Independent TDs who support the legislation.

Independent Dublin Bay North TD Barry Heneghan, who usually supports the Government but has consistently voted with the Opposition on the legislation, did so again on the failed amendment.

Social Democrats spokeswoman Sinéad Gibney said Black worked with the Government and did everything she could to get legislation enacted “about the blocking of trade with an occupier. And that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Neale Richmond said the legislation will be commenced immediately once passed. He told TDs his senior colleague Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee will be raising the issue again next week at an EU meeting of foreign ministers.

During the committee stage debate of the legislation last month, McEntee said the legal advice she received from the Attorney General “does not say that it is impossible” to include services in the Bill.

However the advice suggested the legal basis for a ban on services was not as strong as a ban on goods alone. It was also unclear how the Government would implement a ban on the trade of services, she said.

Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghaíl had claimed the Government was trying to avoid “annoying the Americans”.

But McEntee said the Government was “not trying to run away from services because we’re afraid of anybody”, because they had called for a ban on the trade of services at EU level.

Occupied Territories Bill banning trade in goods but not services passed by Dáil without vote Paul Murphy accuses Coalition of trying to ‘absolutely gut’ legislation as he objected to debate being restricted to 90 minutes

URGENT: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life is in immediate danger, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and his lawyer warned Saturday, after a prison visit revealed the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital bearing fresh, severe injuries to his head, eyes, ears, and neck, so disfigured his own attorney initially struggled to recognize him.

🔹Attorney Nasser Odeh, who saw Abu Safiya Thursday at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison, said he arrived shackled hand and foot, escorted by masked guards, struggling to breathe and speak, unable to sit upright, and repeatedly on the verge of losing consciousness.

🔹Abu Safiya told him that after his Supreme Court appeal was heard June 10, four or five guards entered his solitary cell at Ganot Prison and beat him with a hammer and batons, and that since his June 24 transfer to Rakefet he has been beaten daily, losing consciousness several times without receiving medical treatment.

🔹“This is the last time you will see me,” he told his lawyer. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.”

🔹PHRI notes the escalation in torture began directly after Abu Safiya challenged his detention in court. He has been held without charge since December 27, 2024, under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law.

🔹The group has appealed to Israel’s attorney general and prison service demanding his immediate transfer, an independent medical examination, and an urgent judicial visit “before it is too late.”

Photo: Amnesty International
www.dropsitenews.com/

We will be at this important demonstration on Wednesday to demand an end the EU’s shameful complicity in apartheid Israel's genocide of Palestinians, to demand an arms embargo, an end to the shameful EU-Israel Association Agreement; the immediate exclusion of Israel from the Horizon programme; no more settlement trade and the end to repression in Europe.