The Government's planned law to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land could be ready before the summer, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
The Government has committed to enacting its own version of the 2018 Occupied Territories Bill, which aims to ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill is listed under "priority publication" in the Government's spring legislative programme.
Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed last July.
"It could well be (completed this side of the summer)," Mr Harris told reporters in Paris.
He said Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee had been working on the bill and had posed questions to Attorney General Rossa Fanning.
"In fairness to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, she's done a lot of work on this," Mr Harris said.
"She has received very detailed advice from the attorney general, she's gone back with further questions and queries working her way through that."
Concerns have been raised that the Government's legislation would only include restrictions on goods and not services in illegal Israeli settlements.
The Government has said covering services is more legally complex, and has sought advice from Mr Fanning.
Mr Harris said a specific timeline for the progress of the bill has yet "to be determined".
He added: "I would make the point, obviously, that the priority - quite rightly - for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Government in recent days has been on consular assistance, getting our citizens home, responding to the situation in the Gulf.
"But the Government's commitment in relation to the Occupied Territories Bill remains."
'Moral obligation' to pass Occupied Territories Bill
ActionAid Palestine said the Government has "a moral obligation" to pass the Occupied Territories Bill to put pressure on Israel to halt the building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
ActionAid Palestine said it is concerned that the US-Israeli war on Iran is distracting from repeated Israeli violations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Communications and Advocacy Co-ordinator Riham Jafari thanked Ireland for its support of Palestinians and called on the Government to take the lead in pressuring Israel to end its policy of building illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
"We need more from the Irish Government to use all diplomatic and commercial and political tools it has to end occupation, to end human rights violation, especially in legislating the occupied territories bills that could put an end to the policy of illegal settlement, which steals the lands of the Palestinians.
"This law is not a political [obligation], it's a moral obligation that should be fulfilled and committed by the Irish Government, especially after recognising the state of Palestine," Ms Jafari said.
She called for "concrete action" in order to tell Palestinians that they are not forgotten.
"Illegal settlement means that these settlements are built on lands of farmers, on homes of families that are demolished for the interest of these settlements.
"So, we need more from the Irish Government to motivate and to be the first. That could encourage other people and other governments in the world to take action.
"The solidarity here in Ireland should be accompanied with real actions."
Ms Jafari said that the crisis in Gaza is "deepening day by day", adding that Israel has repeatedly violated the October ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal that came into effect last October, but violence has continued on a near-daily basis. Both sides have blamed the other for the violation of the truce agreement.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 640 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since October. Israel says four soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.
Gaza has been devastated by more than two years of an Israeli onslaught that killed over 72,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
The war was sparked by Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, where the militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Ms Jafari said that since the ceasefire agreement last October, Gaza is still on the brink of starvation and the agreed number of aid trucks entering the territory is not being met by Israel.
She added that while Israel is not attacking Gaza with the same intensity, their airstrikes have continued, killing at least 600 people since the ceasefire came into effect.
Additional reporting Reuters
