Sa’ar warns Ireland over West Bank import ban: ‘If they pass it, they will pay a price’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that Dublin “will pay a price” if proposed legislation in the Irish parliament to ban the import of goods from the West Bank and East Jerusalem is passed.

״We are taking intensive action against this legislation — it is antisemitic. If they pass it, Ireland will pay a price,” Sa’ar says.

“You can’t keep turning the other cheek. The Irish legislation is antisemitic because it’s based on the residence of Jews and blocks import and export interaction,” the foreign minister adds.

Yesterday, the Irish parliament held a meeting of its Committee of Foreign Affairs to debate the Occupied Territories Bill, which, if passed, would make Ireland the first European Union member state to implement such a ban on Israeli goods.

A draft of the bill was officially published last month, though with the Irish parliament set to recess on Thursday, further debate is not expected until the fall.

Sa’ar’s remarks come amid increasingly strained relations between Dublin and Jerusalem. In December, Israel closed its embassy in Dublin after the Irish government announced it would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state and passed a nonbinding motion declaring that “genocide is being perpetrated” by Israel in Gaza.