Irish bill to curb trade with Israeli settlements due in 'coming weeks', minister says

Ireland will introduce ​a long-promised bill seeking to ​curb trade with ‌settlements in ​the Israeli-occupied West Bank to parliament in the coming weeks, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee ‌said on Thursday.

Ireland will introduce ​a long-promised bill seeking to ​curb trade with ‌settlements in ​the Israeli-occupied West Bank to parliament in the coming weeks, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee ‌said on Thursday. Ireland has been drafting the proposed legislation for the last year and has faced pressure from opposition politicians to include ‌a ban on services as well as goods, ‌while Israel and lawmakers in the United States want the bill scrapped.

Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited ⁠to goods. ​Earlier this ⁠year Ireland's top government lawyer raised several "significant" legal and practical issues to ministers ⁠on whether the scope could be extended to services. "I will ​bring forward a piece of legislation in the coming weeks," ⁠McEntee told parliament, adding that she was hoping to publish the bill in ⁠tandem ​with Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovenia, who have also committed to introducing bans.

"If they decide not to, then ⁠we will still continue with ours. I'm being very clear about ⁠that," McEntee ⁠added. Spain has already introduced similar trade curbs, the only European Union member to so far ‌do ‌so.