Progressing the Occupied Territories Bill without the inclusion of a ban on services shows the Government is crumbling under pressure from the United States, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n
Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter kicking the Occupied Territories Bill to touch for more than a year, Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee has finally said the government intends to revive it. It should not have taken the kidnapping and violent abuse of Irish activists by Israeli forces to spur her into action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now been over two years since Israel intensified its genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The thousands of lives stolen by Netanyahu\u2019s murderous regime should have been reason enough to pass this essential piece of legislation long ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, much like all of Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s actions, there is a catch: the coalition is not going to include services in the OTB, an omission which suggests the government is crumbling under pressure from the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government has blamed legal issues for excluding services from the OTB. However, this doesn\u2019t stand up to scrutiny. For a start, Roderick O\u2019Gorman, who was a minister in the previous government, has said the AG didn\u2019t raise any legal concerns about the inclusion of services in the Bill during the last D\u00e1il term.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther; we had 18 hours of scrutiny of the Bill during meetings of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee – and heard from legal experts who stated there were no legal issues precluding Ireland from including services in the OTB.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, that Committee produced a report which unanimously agreed that services should be included. This could and should be the form in which the OTB is passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdherence with international law requires a ban on services, not just goods. In 2014, the Government correctly banned the trade of goods and services with Crimea. This coalition has created a double standard by inventing reasons not to do the same in the case of the Occupied Territories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inclusion of a ban on services, is what gives this legislation teeth. Having delayed the passage of this Bill for so long, the government must not introduce a half-measure.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 22nd, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Progressing the Occupied Territories Bill without the inclusion of a ban on services shows the Government is crumbling under pressure from the United States, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cAfter kicking the Occupied Territories Bill to touch for more than a year, Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529,595,738,641,7,732],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaza","category-occupied-territories-bill","category-palestine","category-patricia-stephenson","category-press-release","category-west-bank"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n