Israel-Ireland relations

Pro-Israel supporters protesting outside the Irish parliament January 24, 2019, in opposition to a private member's bill that would criminalize the import and sale of settlements goods to Ireland. (Twitter)

January 28, 2019, 1:53 pm

Knesset speaker scraps MKs’ mission to Ireland over boycott legislation

Yuli Edelstein nixes March parliamentary delegation in snub over Dublin’s stance on the import of West Bank products

By TOI staff

Screen capture from video of Irish Ambassador to Israel, Alison Kelly. (YouTube)

January 25, 2019, 1:37 pm

Irish envoy given ‘angry rebuke’ over bill outlawing settlement goods

Foreign Ministry warns ‘hypocritical and anti-Semitic’ legislation would have serious repercussions for Israel-Ireland ties if passed

By TOI staff

In this Tuesday, February 11, 2014 photo, Israeli workers inspect barrels in a winery in the West Bank settlement of Psagot. (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

January 25, 2019, 12:45 am

Israel summons Irish envoy as bill criminalizing settlement trade advances

Netanyahu’s office calls legislation ‘anti-Semitic’ as lower house pushes ahead with measure despite concerns of Israel cutting ties with Dublin

By TOI staff and JTA

Palestinian workers on November 11, 2015, at a date packaging factory in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. This produce will be labeled if exported to the EU as 'Product of the West Bank (Israeli settlement' (Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)

December 5, 2018, 11:18 pm

Israel fumes as Irish Senate advances bill outlawing settlement trade

Foreign Ministry slams ‘most extreme anti-Israel piece of legislation in Europe,’ though it still has to clear several hurdles to become law

By Raphael Ahren

US Ambassador David Friedman, left, lighting a Hanukkah menorah, at the Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem, on December 3, 2018. (Matty Stern/ US Embassy)

December 3, 2018, 8:20 pm

Top Irish diplomat scolds US envoy for feting Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

David Friedman’s Hanukkah-themed tweet is ‘provocative and biased’ and unhelpful on the path to peace, Simon Coveney says

By Raphael Ahren

Jewish winemakers inspecting grapes at a winery in the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, September 8, 2014. (Gershon Elinson/FLASH90)

November 28, 2018, 11:08 pm

Ireland advances bill criminalizing sale of goods made in settlements

Legislation still has numerous hurdles to overcome before it becomes law, and Israeli officials are confident the government will ultimately block it

By Raphael Ahren

Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Coveney, speaks to the media, at Iveagh House in Dublin, August 16, 2017. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)

September 23, 2018, 2:42 pm

Irish FM: We’ll recognize Palestine if peace talks remain stalled

At press conference with PA foreign minister, Simon Coveney warns that ‘a lot of other countries in Europe’ are likely to do the same

By TOI staff

In this file photo, then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman waits outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem for a meeting with his Irish counterpart, Eamon Gilmore, Jan 29, 2012 (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

July 12, 2018, 4:05 pm

Liberman wants Dublin embassy shut over Ireland’s anti-settlement legislation

‘We won’t turn the other cheek,’ defense minister says after Irish Senate advances bill to ban settlement goods, despite Irish FM opposing it

By Raphael Ahren

July 11, 2018, 10:36 pm

Israel summons Irish envoy for dressing down over anti-settlement bill

Alison Kelly to be reprimanded by Foreign Ministry officials after Irish Senate advances bill setting prison time for those who import settlement goods

By Raphael Ahren

The Irish Senate debating a bill that would ban trade with settlement goods, July 11, 2018 (screenshot: oireachtas.ie)

July 11, 2018, 7:30 pm

Ireland moves to criminalize trade with settlements, drawing Israeli ire

Palestinians welcome Irish Senate’s advancement of bill setting prison time for those who import settlement goods; proposal still faces hurdles to become law

By Raphael Ahren

Joint (Arab) List leader Ayman Odeh (C) leads the party's weekly faction at the Knesset, October 31, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

July 11, 2018, 2:06 pm

Arab Knesset party backs Irish bill to criminalize trade with settlements

Joint (Arab) List says Israel ‘deserves all the sanctions and boycotts,’ encourages European countries not to give in to ‘the Zionist lobby’

By Raoul Wootliff

Irish Senator Frances Black speaks ahead of of a Senate vote on the Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, January 30, 2018 (screenshot www.oireachtas.ie)

July 4, 2018, 10:51 am

Israel slams ‘immoral’ Irish bill banning trade with settlements

Embassy in Dublin says bid to prohibit sale and import of settlement goods, which will be voted on next week, will empower Hamas

By Raphael Ahren

Convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled speaks at an event in Beirut in January 2009. (CC BY 2.0, Sebastian Baryli, Wikipedia)

May 31, 2018, 11:44 pm

Israel urges Ireland to cancel speech by Palestinian terrorist

Minister Gilad Erdan sends Irish education minister protest letter, calls planned video address at Dublin club by plane hijacker Leila Khaled a ‘theater of the absurd’

By Michael Bachner

The site where a mortar shell from Gaza hit a kindergarten in southern Israel on May 29, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

May 29, 2018, 8:00 pm

International sympathy rains down as Israeli diplomats go on offensive

US calls rocket and mortar fire ‘reprehensible,’ Italy tweets solidarity, and Ireland blames Hamas, in flurry of condemnation of attacks from Gaza

By Raphael Ahren

May 25, 2018, 1:57 pm

Olga I. Deutsch

Ireland’s double standard on foreign meddling

How strange that the Irish fund left-wing Israeli NGOs, but prohibit foreigners weighing in on the abortion debate