The Israeli civil rights organization Shurat HaDin has launched an appeal to Washington, calling on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to directly intervene against a hostile new piece of Irish legislation.
The legal group has branded Dublin’s newly approved Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 a discriminatory assault and a form of economic warfare targeted explicitly at the Jewish state.
If enacted, the contentious Irish law would establish strict criminal penalties for importing any commodities produced by Jewish communities situated throughout Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.
In its formal petition to Rubio, Shurat HaDin highlighted the blatant hypocrisy of the Dublin government, noting that Ireland maintains completely unrestricted trade relations with various other globally disputed or occupied territories, including Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, Tibet, and regions currently under Russian control.
“If Ireland’s true legal principle were opposition to commerce from occupied or disputed territories, consistency would require universal application. Instead, Ireland has chosen selective enforcement against the world’s only Jewish state," the legal group asserted in its correspondence.
The diplomatic friction arrives on the heels of statements by Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee, who stated last week that she hopes to implement the discriminatory ban in a coordinated bloc alongside Belgium, the Netherlands, and potentially Slovenia.
To date, Spain stands as the sole European Union member state to have actively implemented similar commercial curbs against Israeli interests.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder and president of Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, warned that Dublin's actions provide dangerous state-level validation to radical, anti-Israel boycott movements.
“When a European government singles out Jewish commerce from historically Jewish lands for criminalization while ignoring every other territorial dispute on earth, that is not policy - that is prejudice," Darshan-Leitner said.
The legal group is pressing the State Department to issue an immediate public condemnation, launch an official review into whether Dublin is breaching international trade frameworks, and formulate concrete economic and diplomatic counter-measures. A parallel warning was dispatched by the organization to the US Senate Committee on Trade, cautioning that Ireland’s unilateral punitive maneuvers directly sabotage the foundation of the Oslo Accords by replacing bilateral negotiation with economic hostility.
“Secretary Rubio must make clear to Dublin that the United States will not stand by while a democratic ally legitimizes economic warfare against the Jewish state. History has shown us where the selective exclusion of Jewish commerce leads. We cannot allow that road to be paved again, this time with legal euphemisms," Darshan-Leitner concluded.
Ireland’s move to outlaw Israeli goods comes amid strained ties between Israel and Ireland in recent years, as the Irish government has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel. In April of 2024, then-Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris failed to mention the hostages being held by Hamas during his first speech after being elected leader, resulting in criticism from Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Later, Harris criticized Israel's strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, accusing Israel of a “pattern of flouting international law and disregard for rules of engagement."
A month later, Ireland joined Spain, Norway, and subsequently Slovenia in officially recognizing a Palestinian state.
In December of 2024, Israel shuttered its embassy in Dublin amid escalating tensions, citing Ireland’s recognition of a Palestinian state and its vocal condemnation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
This past October, Ireland elected far-left President Catherine Connolly who has labeled Israel a “terrorist state."
Connolly last week said she was “very proud" of her sister, who had been arrested by Israel after taking part in a provocative flotilla which sought to violate Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.