Ireland has taken a series of measures that sever relations with the Jewish state. The latest measure took place yesterday, after the Irish Senate voted for a bill that seeks to boycott Israeli products that are manufactured on what it views as “disputed territories,” including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Thirty Irish senators voted in favor of the bill while 12 opposed. Final approval of the bill in the Dublin Senate, which was sponsored by Senator Frances Black, requires further proceedings. It is important to underscore that anyone who breaks the proposed law and decides to purchase goods from disputed territories in Israel, could face up to five years in prison.
The Irish government voiced its disapproval of the bill and underscored in a statement that EU laws do not allow an EU member-state to decide for itself with which states it can have economic relations.
In response to the latest developments in Dublin, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan called the Irish senate’s vote a disgrace and said that the bill was tainted by anti-Semitism. He further accused the Irish Senate of providing tailwind to the deplorable anti-Israeli “boycott organizations that maintain ties with terror groups and cynically exploit the term ‘human rights’ for the purpose of spreading hatred and intensifying the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict.” Minister Erdan further stressed that “If this bill is passed, (Israel) will act to expose all of its promoters and advancers and will also act to legally prevent it from being implemented in keeping with the international laws of commerce and in keeping with American legislation.”
It is important to point to the fact that Frances Black, the Irish senator who introduced the bill, signed in the past a letter that calls for a boycott of all Israeli goods and services, including those from territories that are not considered by the international community as “disputed.”