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MARY LOU MCDONALD has accused the Government of “walking away” from the Occupied Territories Bill as the coalition moved to counter Sinn Féin’s motion to pass the Bill.
Sinn Féin tabled a motion in the Dáil this evening calling on the Government to pass the Occupied Territories Bill without further delay.
However, the Government has proposed an amendment to the opposition’s motion.
It follows comments made by Taoiseach Micheál Martin last month that the Bill will be replaced with new legislation, saying that “virtually every section” of the existing piece of legislation will need to be amended but denying that it would be “watered down”.
The Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories Bill) was first introduced by Independent Senator Francis Black in 2018.
According to the text of the proposed legislation, it would make it an offence “for a person to import or sell goods or services originating in an occupied territory or to extract resources from an occupied territory in certain circumstances”.
The new government has been urged not to dilute the Occupied Territories Bill as senior figures in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael raised concerns about the impact the draft law will have on Ireland’s international standing.
As it is drafted, Black’s Occupied Territories Bill would prevent the import of both goods and services from occupied territories.
However, the commitment in the Government’s counter-motion this evening only refers to goods.
It states that the Government “will progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories following the July 2024 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion.”
It also states that the coalition will “continue to press for action at the EU level” and continue to prioritise “concrete policies and actions that contribute to improving the situation on the ground, and keeping momentum towards a sustainable peace based on the two-state solution”.
Speaking in the Dáil this evening, Mary Lou McDonald referenced Mary Manning and the other Dunnes Stores workers who went on strike over their right not to handle goods from South Africa in protest at apartheid in 1984.
“Today that crucible of apartheid is found in Palestine, in the brutality inflicted on its people by the colonising, occupying, dehumanising, criminal Israeli regime,” McDonald said.
She said US President Donald Trump’s assertion that the “dispossessed, impoverished and brutalised refugee population” of Gaza should be permanently displaced by those wishing to construct a “dystopian Riviera” is “astounding in its cruelty and demonstrates utter disregard for human rights and international law”.
This government has walked away from the Occupied Territories Bill. It is a blatant U-turn, a monumental act of bad faith, designed to delay the imposition of this sanction against Israel’s apartheid regime. Cynical and so utterly shameful.
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) February 5, 2025
No ifs, no buts, no delays, no… pic.twitter.com/48wnszOQMm
“The only way to stop Israel is to sanction Israel,” McDonald said.
“Just as Ireland took the lead by sanctioning apartheid South Africa in 1987, it must now take the lead today by sanctioning apartheid, genocidal Israel.
That means enacting the Occupied Territories Bill. This one, the one that is here and ready to go, not some pale imitation.
“Tánaiste, the amendment you propose to our motion confirms that this Government has walked away from the Occupied Territories Bill.”
McDonald described the counter-motion as a “blatant U-turn” and a “monumental act of bad faith designed to delay the imposition of sanctions against the Israeli regime”.
“It is cynical and shameful,” she added.
Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris told the Dáil that it is “only the opposition who seek to suggest that the Government of Ireland does not stand with the people of Palestine”.
“This Government is on the side of humanity, and we also represent the people of Ireland, and you don’t have any sort of monopoly on that, and it must be exhausting suggesting you do,” Harris said.
He said the motion tabled by Sinn Féin ”does not reflect the track record of sustained, principled action by the Irish Government on this issue”.
“I am submitting an amendment this evening on behalf of the Government which sets out a full range of meaningful actions taken by Government, as well as our broad approach to important recent developments and current considerations.” he said.
He said the Government would progress the legislation in relation to the occupied Palestinian territories and had sought updated legal advice in relation to it, adding that they would work with Senator Black and across the Dáil on it.
Harris said that there are “major legal issues” with the current legislation which are not “technical issues, as you portrayed”.
“‘Pass the bill now’ sounds great, but there are major legal issues,” he told Mary Lou McDonald.
“It’s about getting legislation that is lawful, Deputy McDonald, not about pretending to do something for the sake of it. We must get this right.”
The Tánaiste said a two state solution and the right of the people of Palestine to self determine their own future “has to be the final destination”.
“Let me be very clear. This country, the European Union and international partners have been consistently clear there can be no forced displacement of any civilian population in Gaza, nor occupation of the strip by Israel.”
Labour TD Duncan Smith said that before the general election, the outgoing government said they would support the Occupied Territories Bill going through, “not that they would reword it line-by-line”.
“They are not following through on that. There could be no greater signal of solidarity to the Palestinian people for a country the size of Ireland, if they would back the Occupied Territories Bill,” he said.
Smith said that this was an “important moment” for the new government and if the Bill is passed, could ”bring Irish foreign policy into a new, better and braver space”.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney said Ireland must stand strong on the principle “that it is wrong to trade in goods and services from illegally occupied land, and that is what this Bill does”.
“Anything less is a failure to fulfill our duties under international law and the mandate of the Irish people who have been overwhelmingly vocal on this issue.”
Gibney said that while trade is a critical component of the country’s economic stability, “human life is not a bargaining chip our obligations under international law”.
“Laws which protect the rights of every person to live in peace and dignity are paramount. If the Government wishes to trade away those obligations, then I, on behalf of the Irish people, ask them to name what price exactly they plan to put on them.”
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman accused former coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of “bringing forward this smoke screen that this Bill has to start again”.
“We need to use this debate to burst the myth being peddled by the Government that we have to start the Occupied Territories Bill from scratch,” O’Gorman said.
This is a tactic being used by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the independents to avoid doing something that before the last general election, you all indicated that you would pass.
He said that nobody disputes that the Occupied Territories Bill needs some amendments, but he said that this can be done at committee stage.
“Bills are amended every single day in this house. We added multiple entire new sections to the Planning Bill in the last Dáil. We dealt with over 1,000 amendments to the Birth Information and Tracing Act three years ago.
“But this Government, these ministers, have made a choice, and the choice is that they’re not going to pass any Occupied Territories Bill.”
O’Gorman said that people see through the “smoke screen”, adding: “They see through it in the same way they saw through the stroke on opposition speaking time. They see the clear U turn that this represents.
“Ministers, drop the smoke screen. Pass this bill.”
A vote will be held on the Government amendment to the Bill next week.
Need more information on what is happening in Israel and Palestine? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to navigating the news online.
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