Opening Remarks: Maurice Cohen, Chairman of the Representative Council of the Jewish Community in Ireland to Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, 7/15/2025
These remarks were delivered to the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, on July 15, 2025, regarding proposed legislation, Prohibition of Importation of Goods from Israeli Settlements, which would boycott Israeli goods, products, and materials from the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem.
Chair, Members,
Many who support this Bill do so in good faith. I do not doubt their concern for the Palestinian people — I share it. And the Jewish community in Ireland shares it too.
But this Bill — the Prohibition of Importation of Goods from Israeli Settlements (and potentially Services)— is not a plan for peace. It is not a policy. It is a performance of misguided effort.
It has been wrapped in the language of justice, solidarity, and resistance. But behind the slogans, I ask you plainly: What does it actually do? Who does it actually help?
Because for all its principled tone, this Bill changes nothing on the ground. It will not remove Hamas from Gaza. It will not reform the ineffective leadership of the Palestinian Authority. It will not foster dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, nor improve the lot of the Palestinians economically or socially.
It certainly will not bring peace any sooner.
It is as some have described, symbolism, a gesture.
And while gestures can have their place — in these circumstances, especially ones that carry legal, diplomatic, and social consequences —they should never be passed off as national policy or strategy in the pursuit of our vital interests.
Let me be very clear. I speak as an Irish citizen. Born and raised here in Dublin. And as a Jew, from a small, long-established Irish-Jewish community that arrived here in the early 1600s.
And that community is now increasingly fearful.
We are witnessing a rise in racism and its not too distant relative antisemitism across Europe, yes — but also right here in Ireland.
And while this Bill may not set out to target Jews or Jewish life, its message is unmistakably felt by us.
One of my best friends with whom I went to school, a long time respected member of the Jewish Community, whose grandfather was the only civilian murdered in the 1916 rising, said to me only two days ago “I always thought of myself as an Irishman who happened to be Jewish. Now I know I’m just a Jew living in Ireland”. Many of us think like that.
Because when the only country in the world you choose to boycott by law is the one Jewish state — not China for Tibet, not Turkey for Northern Cyprus, not Russia for Crimea or Myanmar for its atrocities — then something is amiss.
Selective outrage is not foreign policy. And double standards do not serve the cause of peace.
This Bill, in tone and in consequence, isolates moderates, empowers extremes, and undermines the credibility that Ireland has built as a voice for reason and reconciliation in the field of peacebuilding.
Ireland is proud of its reputation internationally in its evenhanded approach to other conflicts around the world. We invite, we host, we mediate, we listen. But being evenhanded means being a trusted voice to all sides to any conflict.
So I ask the committee members, How can we offer ourselves as honest brokers if we legislate in a way that makes it clear we’ve already taken a side?
This is not diplomacy. This is not a strategy. It’s performance politics dressed as principle. And in that theatre, we’re not helping Palestinians — we’re just congratulating ourselves. We are told this Bill is “symbolic.” But that’s exactly the problem.
Symbolism without substance can be deeply damaging. It may win applause in this chamber, but it sets fire to our credibility abroad.
It tells one side: you alone are to blame. It tells the other: you are beyond reproach.
And it locks both into further entrenched positions that make peace harder, not easier. If we truly care about Palestinian lives, then let’s ask: What can Ireland actually do?
Ireland should seek to encourage the establishment of a process that enables both sides to reach a shared understanding of what is the actual problem.
We can engage in diplomacy that encourages cooperation and mutual accountability. That work is harder, slower, and often thankless — but it is real.
We can support real education, and deradicalisation.
This Bill may feel good — but does it do good?
Because it won’t bring two states closer.
But it might drive Jewish communities here in Ireland further into fear and isolation.
Let me be very clear: criticism of Israel is not antisemitism.
But when criticism becomes a campaign, when it becomes law — and no other state is treated the same — we have to pause. We have to question.
This Bill is not about policy. It’s about posture.
And I say: Ireland can do better. We can be bold without being biased.
Principled without being performative. And most of all — we can be consistent.
So I ask this Committee: for what do we want to be remembered?
For doing what felt good? Or for taking decisions that led to good outcomes?
For making a point? Or making a difference?
Let us not trade our integrity for a headline. Let us not confuse moral theatre for moral action.
Let us be remembered as a country that stood not just with gestures, but with grit — that chose diplomacy over drama, and substance over symbolism and spectacle. Let us choose peace over popularity.
Thank You.
Opening Remarks:
Submitted by The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland July 2025
