THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Bill will be brought before cabinet for government approval later, with the aim of enacting it before the Dáil summer recess.
The long-awaited bill was first proposed by senator Frances Black in 2018 and would ban trade from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee will later seek government approval and aims to meet this summer deadline.
A department spokesperson remarked that Ireland has “continually advocated for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians”.
However, the spokesperson added that it is “clear from the actions of the Israeli government, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, that they have no intention of reaching a peaceful resolution”.
The spokesperson added that it “remains the government’s preference that collective action would be taken at EU level” and that McEntee is “continuing to actively pursuing this”.
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International Glance
In a historic first for Germany, nearly 700 students at the University of Leipzig voted almost unanimously on 19 May to demand that their university sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions over the genocide in Gaza.
The US and Israel are "actively working" to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, and are pursuing a new arrangement that would see the management of the revered Muslim site closely align with Israeli interests, multiple sources have told Middle East Eye.
A broad coalition of international heads of state and foreign ministers responded with sharp condemnation to Russia’s highly destructive overnight aerial bombardment of Kyiv, with several capitals labeling the operation an explicit act of state terrorism.
Vadimir Putin pulled up to a hotel in central Moscow earlier in May in a Russian-made SUV, dressed casually in jeans and a light jacket. Carrying a bouquet of flowers, he walked unhurriedly into the lobby and embraced his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, who kissed him on both cheeks.






























