People Before Profit used their Private Members’ Business this morning for a joint motion from the left opposition parties and independents. The motion, sponsored by People Before Profit-Solidarity, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Green Party, the 100% Redress Party and left independents, calls for the government’s own Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 to be amended to include a ban on trade in services as well as goods. The motion also calls for the Bill to be enacted before the end of this year in line with the 2024 ruling of the ICJ and the unanimous position of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade.
People Before Profit Deputy Paul Murphy said “Yesterday the newly appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee said the Occupied Territories Bill is one of her top political priorities. But it turns out that it is such a ‘top priority’ that she didn’t even bother to turn up for this morning’s important debate on the joint opposition motion. The contributions from the junior ministers she sent to the debate in her place were a rehashing of discredited arguments against including services in the Occupied Territories Bill. Quite simply, no one believes them.
“The government did not oppose the motion, so the motion formally passed, but the government also stated it has still not decided if services will be included in the ban on trade. What's happening here is that the government is trying to pretend to the Irish people that it supports the people of Palestine while also signalling to the US Chamber of Commerce and the Trump administration that it will do very little if anything to sanction Israel. That’s why Minister McEntee did not show up, and that's a shameful betrayal of the people of Palestine.
“The Minister’s ‘no-show’ is a fitting representation of the governments’ double talk and hypocrisy. It's clear the government will do very little if anything to sanction Israel unless the pressure from the Irish people becomes overwhelming. So we urge people to turn out in big numbers this evening at the protest called by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Campaign to Pass the Occupied Territories Bill at the Dáil on Kildare Street at 5.30pm to demand a full ban on trade in goods and services now ”.