Bill to ban all trade with Israel to go before Dáil

People Before Profit's Sanctions Against Israel Bill 2025 calls for 'a complete boycott of all economic relations with the state of Israel'

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said bill was 'in line with our moral and legal obligations under the genocide convention, international conventions on apartheid and international law'.

A bill which would ban all trade with Israel has been brought to the Dáil.

People Before Profit's Sanctions Against Israel Bill 2025 would go much further than the Occupied Territories Bill and would ban all trade with Israel, not just illegally occupied lands.

Introducing the bill at first stage in the Dáil on Thursday, Richard Boyd Barrett said it was "in line with our moral and legal obligations under the genocide convention, international conventions on apartheid and international law" and said Israel was a "death machine".

"It calls for a complete boycott of all economic relations with the state of Israel, for the crimes of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the ongoing persecution and oppression of the Palestinian people.

"There is a narrative that Israel's only crimes are illegal settlements on the West Bank or that genocidal slaughter we have seen over the past two years in Gaza is simply the outworking of the extremism of Netanyahu and a few individual ministers. The truth, of course, is something very different. The truth is: Israel is not now or never has been a normal state. 

"The State of Israel is a death machine directed at the Palestinians and whose sole purpose is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their lands. This has been the case since 1948, and the genocidal slaughter we have witnessed over the past two years is simply the outworking of that horrific reality," he said.

His party colleague Paul Murphy said the Government was "all talk and no action" on the issue of Gaza.

"Sanctions by Ireland on Israel would make a real difference because, shamefully, Ireland is now the world's second largest importer of Israeli goods. During the genocide of the past two years, trade between Ireland and apartheid Israel has exploded from €198m in 2020 to €3.24bn in 2024. 

"These are not consumer goods. If they were consumer goods, then the Irish people who have stood steadfast with Palestine, marched week after week and taken direct action, would have boycotted these goods."

In an earlier session of questions, foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee said she had "given a very clear commitment that we will uphold our programme for government commitment that we will progress" the Occupied Territories Bill.

"I am waiting on further information and advice, and once I have that, we will be able to make further progress," she said.

Ms McEntee said the Government had "always been of the view that the EU-Israel Association Agreement must be interpreted and applied in accordance with the obligations of the EU and its member states under international law".