Calls for Ireland to strengthen its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have grown louder as a coalition of more than 80 humanitarian and faith-based organizations, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, and Trocaire, released a landmark report urging the government to expand its proposed Occupied Territories Bill. The report, published on September 14, 2025, insists that the bill should not only ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, as already promised by the Irish government, but also extend those restrictions to include services.
According to DonegalLive.ie, the Trading with Illegal Settlements report comes at a pivotal moment, just days before the Dail resumes after its summer recess. The Irish coalition government had previously committed, in its Programme for Government completed in January 2025, to passing a ban on goods from settlements deemed illegal under international law. However, the new report argues that limiting the legislation to goods alone would leave a significant loophole—one that could undermine the bill’s effectiveness and Ireland’s commitment to human rights.
The report builds on a recommendation made by a cross-party Oireachtas committee in July, which also called for including services in the bill. Activists and opposition parties have repeatedly echoed this demand, emphasizing the need for comprehensive action. The coalition of organizations behind the report contends that trade in both goods and services directly contributes to the ongoing dispossession and impoverishment of Palestinians living under occupation.
Jim Clarken, chief executive of Oxfam Ireland, did not mince words about the report’s findings. "This report lays bare the brutality of life under Israel’s illegal occupation since 1967: settler violence, the theft of over 2,000 sq km of land, control of water, and the suffocation of the Palestinian economy," Clarken said, as reported by DonegalLive.ie. "The relentless expansion of settlements erodes the very possibility of the Palestinian state recognised by Ireland last year. The EU must find the unity this moment demands and fully suspend its trade agreement with Israel. The Irish people refuse to be complicit in illegal occupation. If ever there was a time for human life and survival to outweigh short-term economic considerations, it is now."
The report’s signatories include a wide array of organizations—more than 80 in total—spanning humanitarian and faith-based groups. Their collective voice is clear: the Irish government must seize this moment to set a new standard, both nationally and across the European Union. Conor O’Neill, head of policy and advocacy at Christian Aid Ireland and a spokesman for the Campaign to Pass the Occupied Territories Bill, said, "We have a crucial opportunity to get this right and ensure that an emerging new EU standard is effective."
Senator Frances Black, who originally tabled the Occupied Territories Bill and included services in her draft, highlighted the urgency of the situation. "We have been debating this legislation for seven long years, and in that time the situation in Palestine has rapidly deteriorated. We’re now facing into the devastating reality of a live-streamed genocide in Gaza. The time for talk is over. EU states, including Ireland, must finally act," she said, according to DonegalLive.ie.
The Irish government’s coalition partners had already committed to a goods ban in January 2025. Now, the focus is on whether they will go further. Tanaiste Simon Harris, who also serves as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, has stated that he is "open" to including services in the bill and expects a decision early in the new Dail term. The timing of this debate is no accident, as international scrutiny of Israel’s actions in the occupied territories has intensified over the past year, with UN reports documenting increased settlement expansion and a surge in settler violence throughout 2024.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has reported that restrictions imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories cost their economy billions of dollars annually. These findings, echoed in the Trading with Illegal Settlements report, underscore the economic dimension of the occupation and the far-reaching impact of international trade policies.
Beyond Ireland, the report calls for an EU-wide ban on trade with Israeli settlements, encompassing both goods and services. It points out that the European Union is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for 32% of Israel’s overall trade and amounting to approximately 42 billion euro per year. Despite the EU’s official stance against the settlements, the report estimates that European markets may still import as much as 350 million euro worth of products from settlement-based Israeli corporations annually.
The report’s authors recommend that the EU suspend its Association Agreement with Israel until the country fully complies with its human rights obligations under the deal. This recommendation is not without precedent. In June, Ireland and eight other EU member states wrote formally to the European Commission, urging the development of proposals to "effectively discontinue trade with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." The move signaled a growing impatience among some EU governments with what they see as a lack of concrete action at the European level.
Momentum for tougher measures has been building across the continent. In August 2025, Slovenia became the first EU member state to implement a ban on trade of goods with illegal settlements. Spain has since announced its own ban, while legislation covering both goods and services has been tabled in Belgium. These developments are seen by advocates as signs of a shifting European consensus—one that could put further pressure on Ireland to act decisively.
Opponents of the proposed restrictions argue that trade bans could have unintended consequences, including economic harm to ordinary Palestinians or damage to diplomatic relations. Some business leaders and political figures have cautioned against moving too quickly, emphasizing the importance of EU unity and the potential for backlash from Israel or its allies. Nevertheless, supporters of the expanded bill maintain that the moral and legal imperative to oppose settlement expansion outweighs such concerns.
The debate over the Occupied Territories Bill is set against a backdrop of escalating violence and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. According to the Trading with Illegal Settlements report, trade with the settlements "directly contributes to the dispossession and impoverishment of Palestinians in the region." The report’s signatories insist that, without robust action, Ireland and the EU risk complicity in the ongoing violations of international law.
As the Dail prepares to return and the Irish government faces mounting pressure from civil society, activists, and international partners, the fate of the Occupied Territories Bill—and Ireland’s broader approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—hangs in the balance. Whether the government will heed the call to include services in the bill remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the eyes of both Europe and the world are watching closely.
The coming weeks will reveal whether Ireland is prepared to lead the way on this contentious issue, or whether further debate and division will delay decisive action yet again.