Government to draft new bill to ban Occupied Territories imports 

Speaking at the special Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Dublin, incoming Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that work on drafting amendments to the Occupied Territories Bill has been complete.

The incoming government is to shelve the existing Occupied Territories Bill and instead draft new laws to ban imports of goods from the occupied West Bank.

The new Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent coalition is set to introduce their own legislation on the occupied territories, rather than using the existing draft bill.

Speaking at the special Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Dublin, incoming Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that work on drafting amendments to the Occupied Territories Bill has been complete.

“Virtually every section of that bill [Occupied Territories Bill] will have to be amended,” Mr Martin said.

“So the issue is whether we have a new bill, which I think we’ll probably move towards a new bill in respect of imports into Ireland from the occupied territories, because I think it needs a full debate in the Dáil at second stage.” Mr Martin rejected any assertion that a new bill would be “watered down”, saying that there is widespread acknowledgment that the current Occupied Territories Bill is unconstitutional and, in some areas, “deficient”.

The Fianna Fáil leader welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza, saying that it has been “long overdue”.

“The collective punishment of the people of Gaza was unacceptable. Ireland took a strong leadership position, particularly in terms of humanitarian context,” Mr Martin said.

He said that the conduct of modern warfare is “reprehensible” and that it is being seen in other countries such as Sudan, where he added that it is not receiving enough attention.

On the Occupied Territories Bill, the draft programme for government commits to “progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories”, which was agreed in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinion.

The ICJ ruling set out that the ongoing Israeli occupation of both the Gaza strip and the West Bank is unlawful.