Ireland intends to continue to advance with its legislation to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements.
This comes after more than a dozen members of the US congress asked that Ireland be added to a list of countries boycotting Israel if the bill is passed.
The Irish deputy premier Simon Harris said despite the opposition, Ireland “intends” to continue to pass the draft laws.
It comes amid global criticism of Israel after its security cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City.
Israel’s air and ground war has already killed tens of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine.
The campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.
The militants still hold 55 hostages — less than half of them believed to be alive — after more than half the captives were released during ceasefires or other deals.
Ireland’s coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and a group of independents committed to passing a ban on goods from the occupied Palestinian territories in its programme for government completed in January.
A cross-party committee recommended that the government pass the bill and the prohibition of imports from the Palestinian Occupied Territories should be extended to include trade in services.
Mr Harris said Ireland was not alone in wanting to ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories.
“People in Ireland, people in Europe and people right across the world feel extraordinarily strongly about the genocidal activity that we’re seeing in Gaza, about the starving children and we will use all tools at our disposal,” he told reporters on Friday.
“It’s not a surprise that some seek to distort or misrepresent our proposed actions.
“Remember, Ireland isn’t alone in relation to this; this week we also saw Slovenia take action in relation to trade from the occupied territories, I expect Belgium are likely to do the same and we intend to advance with our legislation.
“Of course we’ll continue to engage and explain and never allow our position to be misrepresented.”
