Ireland has once again exposed the true face of European hypocrisy.
Last week, in a move drenched in hostility and moral posturing, the Irish parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade discussed draft legislation banning the import of goods produced by Jews living in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
Though ostensibly formulated to uphold international law and human rights, the so-called Israeli settlements bill is nothing more than an insidious attempt to criminalize Jewish life in the heart of the Jewish homeland. It is scheduled to be debated in the coming months. If the bill passes, Ireland’s parliament would become the first national legislature in Europe to adopt such a move.
Let’s be clear: This legislation doesn’t merely target policies. It targets people – Jews – based on where they live. It discriminates against them for daring to build homes, plant vineyards, and produce goods in the very places where King David ruled, Samuel judged the nation, and Amos prophesied thousands of years ago.
And all this from a country that prides itself on liberalism and tolerance.
According to the bill, it would become a criminal offense in Ireland to import goods made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. In other words, if an Irish citizen imports a bottle of kosher wine made by Jews in Hebron or olive oil pressed in the hills of Shiloh, he could be deemed a lawbreaker.
This is not just absurd. It is antisemitic.
Ireland's discriminatory bill singles out Jews
No similar bill is being considered in Ireland to ban goods from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus or Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Only one group – Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria – is singled out, and they are not even occupiers. That, by any reasonable standard, is discrimination.
Indeed, Ireland’s former justice minister Alan Shatter denounced the bill, saying that it “demonizes Israel” and is the “first initiative of any European government to enact legislation to intentionally boycott and discriminate against Jews since the defeat of Nazi Germany.”
And Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar correctly noted, “This legislation singles out Jews for where they live and punishes normal trade.”
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin sought to justify the proposed legislation, accusing Israel of committing “terrible war crimes” in Gaza, including “the slaughter of children,” and he even equated Israel’s counterterrorism operations to Hamas’s actions on Oct. 7.
But Martin’s faux outrage belies the truth. This is not about legal principles. This is about delegitimizing the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel.
Ireland’s hostility toward Israel has become so pronounced in recent years that it prompted the Jewish state to close its embassy in Dublin in December 2024. The move came after a series of anti-Israel moves by the Irish government, such as the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and then-prime minister Simon Harris’s outrageous accusation that Israel was deliberately starving children and targeting civilians in Gaza.
Even more galling is the historical irony. In 1904, the city of Limerick witnessed a dark chapter in Irish history when a Catholic priest incited a boycott against local Jewish merchants. For over two years, the small Jewish community in Limerick was subjected to economic strangulation, threats, and violence, leading some to flee.
Now, 120 years later, the Irish government is also embracing a boycott of Jews – this time, under the guise of progressive policy.
The echoes of age-old hate run deeper
And the echoes of age-old hate run deeper still. During the Holocaust, Ireland shut its doors to nearly every Jewish refugee seeking to escape the Nazi inferno. In World War II, Ireland maintained full diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany until 1945 and even went so far as to send condolences on Hitler’s death. For a nation now posing as a moral beacon, it bears recalling that when six million Jews were being murdered, Ireland looked away – or worse.
What Martin and his ilk seem to forget is that in the Land of Israel, Jews are the indigenous residents and not foreign occupiers. Our connection to Hebron, Beit El, Shiloh, and Shechem is not a matter of modern politics but of historical, religious, and national identity. To attempt to criminalize our presence in these areas is to ignore thousands of years of Jewish history and to deny our basic human rights.
What is particularly ironic is that the proposed bill would harm not just Jews but Arabs as well. Many of the businesses targeted by the legislation employ Palestinian workers, providing them with good wages and job security. By banning these products, Ireland would be punishing Palestinians, too, just for working alongside their Jewish neighbors.
But facts have never stood in the way of anti-Israel animus.
From its embrace of Palestinian propaganda to its relentless condemnation of Israel at the United Nations, Dublin has carved out a reputation for itself as the continent’s leading anti-Israel curmudgeon. This bill is just the latest chapter in this sordid tale.
Ireland’s would-be law sends a chilling message not only to Israel but to Jews everywhere. This is the kind of act one would expect from an authoritarian regime, not from a democratic European nation. It is an affront to decency, a betrayal of history, and a disgrace to Ireland’s own professed values.
Needless to say, Ireland can pass all the laws it wants. But none of them can or will erase Jewish history or uproot the Jewish people from Judea and Samaria.
And it will certainly not silence those of us who speak truth to hypocrisy.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.