Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: Irish Jew claims Dublin's Occupied Territories bill ignores much larger global wars

Daniel O'Dowd of the Ireland Israel Alliance was speaking after the new Irish coalition government confirmed plans to pass its Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban Irish trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

(The UN classifies such Israeli settlements as illegal, which Israel rejects.)

Supporters of Israel have been fiercely critical of the bill, and some have sought to characterise it as a total ban on all trade with the state of Israel.

However the Occupied Territories Bill would not ban trade with the state of Israel - but would apply to goods, services and resources originating in illegal settlements anywhere in the world.

The proposed legislation, first introduced by Independent Senator Francis Black in 2018, does not explicitly name Israel or Palestine.

According to the UN, Israel has illegally occupied Palestine, which includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, since 1967.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements established in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since then.

Mr O'Dowd said: "The new government programme drops all pretence that the Occupied Territories Bill, was anything other than a legislative effort to harm trade with Israel. Now for the simple crime of buying a religious item in Judea and Samaria [in the West Bank], Ireland will be looking to imprison an ‘offending person’ for up to 5 years.

"Notably, the programme does not include one meaningful measure to target Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran.

"This is a government that has disproportionately targeted Israel’s campaign to defeat Hamas and bring the hostages home. There are currently eight other wars currently waging with far higher death tolls and acts of genuine genocide/targeting of civilians, which the Irish government decidedly ignores.”

He listed them as:

1. Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (dead: 5 million). 2. Syrian Civil War (dead: 500,000+). 3. Russian Invasion of Ukraine (dead: 350,000+). 4. Yemeni Civil War (dead: 250,000+). 5. Iraq Conflict (dead: 200,000+). 6. Afghanistan Conflict (dead: 200,000+). 7. Sudan Civil War (dead: 150,000+). 8. Tigray Conflict (dead: 100,000+).

​According to Hamas, Israel has killed 46,000 people in Gaza since Hamas invaded Israel on 7 October 2024, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.

Hamas refuses to say how many of the 46,000 dead were Hamas combatants, though Mr O'Dowd cites Israel's claim that 17,000 Hamas fighters were killed.

He also said the PfG includes plans to lobby for a review of the EU–Israel Trade Agreement, sanction some of the 750,000 Jews living in the Occupied Territories and "full-throated support for the lawfare being presently waged against Israel in international courts".

The News Letter invaded the office of the Taoiseach and Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to comment on his claims - in particular whether it was ignoring a string of much larger wars to target Israel's war in Gaza.

A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach's office declined to explain why the Irish government does not publicly campaign on any of the other larger wars he listed.

Instead she said only that matters in the PFG "should be directed to the political party press offices".

A series of other pro-Palestinian organisations were also invited to respond to Mr O’Dowd’s comments.