The imposing of a travel ban on Israel\u2019s most far-right ministers must be only the beginning of Ireland\u2019s actions to sanction Netanyahu\u2019s rogue government, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n
Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIsraeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are the embodiment of everything that is evil about Israel\u2019s genocidal regime \u2013 it goes without saying that they are not welcome in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this action is a step in the right direction, it is a purely symbolic gesture and should not distract from what we must do to effectively sanction Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo start, the Government must reverse its decision to proceed with Ireland\u2019s scheduled Nations League fixture against Israel in October. Senior ministers have been talking out of both sides of their mouth on this issue, saying they support the FAI\u2019s decision for the game to go ahead while announcing their intention to boycott it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unconscionable that we would legitimise the Israeli regime by engaging with them for the purpose of sport while it commits unbridled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 10, the Social Democrats will use its private members\u2019 time to bring forward a D\u00e1il motion demanding the Government withdraw its support for this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this issue requires our attention now, we cannot forget the bigger picture: the Government must reverse its omission of a ban on services from the Occupied Territories Bill before it is enacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a legal obligation to ban trade with illegal territories \u2013 and trade includes goods and services. This is the very least that the Government should be doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time the Taoiseach stops announcing the bare minimum, and framing it as a significant effort, while Palestinians continue to be slaughtered indiscriminately by a rogue state.\u201d<\/p>\n
June 5, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The imposing of a travel ban on Israel\u2019s most far-right ministers must be only the beginning of Ireland\u2019s actions to sanction Netanyahu\u2019s rogue government, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cIsraeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are the embodiment of everything that is evil about Israel\u2019s genocidal regime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[408,529,718,738,7,732],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-affairs","category-gaza","category-israel","category-palestine","category-press-release","category-west-bank"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n