Dublin - Saba:
The Irish government intends to move forward with legislation to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris stated that despite opposition, Ireland "intends" to continue passing the bills.
Harris noted that "people in Ireland, people in Europe, and people around the world feel extraordinarily strongly about the genocide we are seeing in Gaza, and the starving children, and we will use all the tools at our disposal."
The Fine Gael-Fianna Fail coalition, along with a group of independents in Ireland, affirmed its commitment to passing a ban on goods from the occupied Palestinian territories in its program for government, which was completed in January.
A party committee recommended that the government pass the bill and called for the ban on imports from the occupied Palestinian territories to be expanded to include trade in services.
This comes after more than a dozen members of the US Congress requested that Ireland be added to the list of countries boycotting Israel if the bill is passed.