Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Alan Shatter:
Simply, the provisions of the Bill. The definitions section of the Bill states that Israeli settlements means "a city, village or industrial zone located in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem, the postal code of which is prescribed by order made ...". The "Israeli settlement" reference is just a legal euphemism for locations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and, oddly, Gaza, where there has been no Jewish person living since 2005, but locations in East Jerusalem or the West Bank where Jewish people live. It is as straightforward as that. However, the oddity of the Bill, and I always think Jerusalem is a simple way to illustrate this, is that if a tourist visiting the holy city of Jerusalem-----