Ireland might become the first member-state of the European Union to both ban and criminalize the import of goods from Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem, considered by the Irish lawmakers as products of Israeli settlements in “occupied” Palestinian territories.
The Irish Parliament in Dublin is due to adopt the “Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) 2025 law, despite heavy criticism by local and foreign Jewish organizations warning of the negative effects that would have on Palestinians and Jews.
In a hearing of a joint committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Irish parliament, which took place on Tuesday, July 15, Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish representative council of Ireland, warned that adoption of the proposed bill would deepen antisemitism in Ireland.
“This bill may feel good”, Cohen said, “but does it do good? Because it won’t bring two states closer. But it might drive Jewish communities here in Ireland further into fear and isolation. Let me be very clear: Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. But when criticism becomes a campaign, when it becomes law – and no other state is treated the same – we have to pause. We have to question. This bill is not about policy. It’s about posture.
“And I say: Ireland can do better. We can be bold without being biased. Principled without being performative. And most of all, we can be consistent. Let me be very clear. I speak as an Irish citizen – born and raised here in Dublin – and as a Jew, from a small, long-established Irish-Jewish community [descended from those] that arrived here in the early 1600s. And that community is now increasingly fearful. We are witnessing a rise in racism and its not too distant relative antisemitism across Europe, yes. but also right here in Ireland. And while this bill may not set out to target Jews or Jewish life, its message is unmistakably felt by us.”
Cohen stressed the ever growing distance and estrangement between Ireland and its Jews: “One of my best friends with whom I went to school, a long-time respected member of the Jewish community, whose grandfather was the only civilian murdered in the 1916 (Irish) rising, said to me only two days ago, ‘I always thought of myself as an Irishman who happened to be Jewish. Now I know I’m just a Jew living in Ireland.’ Many of us think like that because when the only country in the world you choose to boycott by law is the one Jewish state – not China for Tibet, not Turkey for Northern Cyprus, not Russia for Crimea, or Myanmar for its atrocities – then something is amiss. Selective outrage is not foreign policy. And double standards do not serve the cause of peace”.
The bill may pass despite high levels of rejection
Opposing the bill in the hearing were former Irish Justice Minister and leading member of the Ireland-Israel Alliance Alan Shatter and British barrister Natasha Hausdorff.
All speakers warned that the planned bill would damage Ireland’s reputation abroad and might bring US companies to stop their activities in Ireland due the United States legislation regarding boycotts on Israel. Shatter stressed that the bill was the first anti-Jewish legislation proposed in an European state since the end of World War II.
Parallel to the hearing, leading American Jewish organizations published a joint statement expressing their deep concern about the proposed legislation.
“The law could create significant risks for US companies doing business in Israel and would fuel rising antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiment in Ireland and elsewhere. The bill singles out Israel and it undermines the prospect for a negotiated two-state solution by attempting to unilaterally predetermine the final status of disputed territories. We are very worried about rising antisemitism in Ireland and note with tremendous concern the statement by the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland that the Jewish community is “increasingly fearful.” We fully support the Jewish community in Ireland in combating this antisemitism which is manifesting itself in demonization of Israel,” said the statements signed by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B’nai B’rith International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization.