Kippahs, condoms and Ireland's 'boycott Jews law' - opinion

The Nazi leadership, having assumed power in Germany on January 30, 1933, decided to implement an economic boycott against the Jews of Germany who numbered approximately 600,000. The German government’s first nationwide action against Germany’s Jewish community took place two months later on April 1, 1933.

A one day boycott targeting Jewish business’s and professionals was implemented across Germany. That day Nazi Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung) with abusive antisemitic boycott signs stood threateningly outside Jewish shops and the offices of Jewish professionals, such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, bankers and accountants.

April 1, 1933 marked the beginning of a nationwide campaign against the entire German Jewish community with the subsequent enactment of a plethora of anti Jewish laws to drive Jews out of the German economy, professions, universities, schools, the public service, the arts and all aspects of German social life. The German citizenship of Jews was revoked, Jews were banned from marrying non Jews, restrictions were placed on when Jews could shop and a curfew implemented.  Jewish property was confiscated and a yellow Star of David had to be worn to distinguish Jews from Germans. Similar laws were applied by Nazi Germany to Jews across Europe as it conquered territory during World War Two.

April 1, 1933, put in its historical context, was the first official German government instigated step along the road to the creation of the concentration camps and the killing fields which resulted in the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Since 1945, no European government has enacted any law specifically targeting and discriminating against Jews and it is almost beyond comprehension that any such law would today be so enacted. Largely unnoticed outside Ireland, the enactment of such a law has been at the centre of Irish political debate and fantasy since 2018. Bizarrely, since Hamas’s barbaric atrocities of October 7, 2023 and its initiation of the Israel/Gaza war there has been growing enthusiasm for its enactment across the Irish political spectrum, including at government level.

Campaigning for the Bill

In the years that followed all of Israel’s adversaries in Ireland, including opposition political parties, NGO’s and street activists, obsessively campaigned for its enactment, including a current government party when in opposition, but the Irish government’s block on the Bill was maintained until 2024.

In May 2024, to appease the thousands of weekly Irish anti Israel street marchers chanting “ from the river to the sea”, waiving Hamas, Hezbollah and PFLP flags and similarly exercised students and NGO’s and to deflect support from opposition parties, on the eve of European and local elections the Irish government announced its recognition of “ the State of Palestine” together with Spain and Norway.  

For the same reason on the eve of Ireland’s November 2024 General Election, the main government parties as well as supporting an Irish parliamentary motion accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, also committed to enacting an amended version of the 2018 Bill should they be re-elected as occurred. It’s original proponents view enactment of the Bill as a precedent to be followed by other EU states.

The stated objective of the Bill is to give effect to the Irish states “obligations” under the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the protection of civilians “ in times of war and under customary international law.” It prescribes that it is a criminal offence for a person to import or sell “settlement goods” or provide “settlement services” or to extract resources from an occupied territory.  

The “person” referenced includes Irish citizens, all residents in Ireland and companies incorporated in Ireland. “Settlement goods”  are said to be “ goods produced in whole or in part within a relevant occupied territory by an illegal settler”. “Settlement services” are services so produced.  

While the Bill as published presents as relevant to all occupied territories, that was simply a facade to give it a fig leaf of respectability at the time of its publication and to deflect from the reality that it is a sectarian measure solely targeted at boycotting goods and services produced or provided, in whole or in part, by any Jewish person “ present” on the West Bank or in East Jerusalem. Its proposers in 2018 also applied it to Gaza, choosing to ignore Israel’s withdrawal from there in 2005. The import into Ireland, sale or provision by an Irish citizen, resident or company incorporated in Ireland, of such goods or services can, under the Bills provisions, result in a fine of up to €250,000 and/or to a term of imprisonment of up to five years.  

Details of the Bill

All parliamentary debate on the Bill and all public discussion of it has focused on Israel and pilloried Israeli settlers on the West Bank and those resident in and/or working in East Jerusalem. The word “settlers” is used as a euphemism instead of  “Jews” and is a label intended to stigmatize and dehumanize.

Boycotting all Jewish connected goods and services originating from there is the announced central objective but provisions contained in the Bill facilitate its application to all Israeli goods and services by simple ministerial order declaring all of Israel to be “ occupied territory”.

Many of the Bills proponents and supporters are BDS advocates and warriors for boycott Israel campaigns. For them the Bill is simply a Trojan Horse for more extensive anti Israel measures and a useful weapon with which to demonise Israel by wrongly depicting it as an apartheid state.  It’s proponents at no stage advocated that it apply to Turkey occupied Northern Cypress, Russia occupied Ukraine, China occupied Tibet or to any other occupied territory.

The Irish government formed in January committed to progressing the Boycott Bill with regard to goods but excluded its application to services in order to limit its application to US multinationals located in Ireland. It did so hoping to  avoid criticism from President Trump and US multinationals being impacted by an anti Israel boycott law in conflict with US anti boycott laws.

Ireland’s Attorney General has stated the Bill in its current form to be both contrary to EU law and in violation of Ireland’s constitution. From a painfully convoluted opinion, until recently kept secret by the Irish government, it is clear that he believes an entirely new version of the Bill, if it is to be enacted,  is required, no matter how framed it may still violate the EUs exclusive competence in international trade and before its enactment EU approval should be sought by the Irish government.  

Removing the fig leaf, he has also asserted its provisions may be more easily prescribed if all pretence is removed and it simply explicitly applies to goods that originate from “ settlers” that is Jews, present on the West Bank and east Jerusalem, albeit the word “Jews” being too indelicate did not appear in his opinion.

Referencing the recent ICJ decision on settlements and Israel’s conduct in Gaza, as perhaps enabling the Bill to avoid EU illegality, he still clearly believed any version of it produced may be ruled invalid by the EU courts. As all Israeli settlements in Gaza were dismantled in 20O5 when Israel pulled out, and no Jews are there engaged in producing or selling goods, his latter reference was both legally irrelevant and egregious.

Key questions

The timeline for the Irish government publishing and enacting its Boycott Bill  is unknown as are the arrangements it will make to ensure its enforcement. Most of the discussion relating to it has obsessed on demonising Israel and minimal consideration has been given to its practical application in the real world outside politics. Many questions require answer.

They include:-

Will there be created a special unit similar to Nazi stormtroopers involving Irish customs and police ( the Gardai) to detect and confiscate criminalised Jewish produced goods?

Will all travelling into Ireland from Israel arriving at an Irish airport or port be stopped, questioned, their luggage and person searched to ensure they are not importing any offending goods?

Will such travellers be profiled to ensure all Jewish entrants into Ireland and non Jewish travellers returning from the Holy Land are so treated, with members of Ireland’s Jewish community and Irish  Christian groups supportive of Israel specifically targeted?

Will Muslim and other travellers into Ireland who visit Israel be similarly treated or exempt from such treatment?

Will those entering and leaving a synagogue be the subject of questioning and search to ensure nothing in their possession or worn originated or was purchased in East Jerusalem or the West Bank from someone Jewish?

Will the law apply to goods purchased or produced on the West Bank or East Jerusalem before the Bills enactment?

On the understanding that anyone who arrives in Ireland from anywhere may have visited Israel at some time and purchased some such goods or could be importing them into Ireland from any location, will every traveller into Ireland have to sign a declaration that they have no such goods and be subject to a discretionary search?

Will Rabbis returning to or visiting Ireland be a particular target?

Will religious items such as a kippah, talis, siddur or Haggadah automatically generate suspicion?

Will a kippah wearing traveller have to prove its provenance?

Will there be raids on Irish retail outlets to check the origin of goods being sold and signs posted warning shoppers to not purchase tainted Jewish goods?

Will particular products like dates, avocados, humas, tehina, olives, grapes, figs, citrus fruits, etc particularly generate suspicion?

Will the provenance of any goods being imported from Israel have to be established, no matter who purchased them? For example, if a tourist visiting Jerusalem or Bethlehem purchases a souvenir there from an Arab merchant, could it be confiscated if it cannot be proved it was manufactured by a Christian, Muslim, Bedouin, or Druze manufacturer?

Will it be illegal to import into or sell in Ireland any tech or medical equipment any part of which was invented or produced in East Jerusalem or the West Bank by a Jewish person or Jewish-owned company?

Could an Irish citizen returning to Ireland, having had a pacemaker inserted in Israel following a cardiac incident, be arrested for its importation because its creation was partly contributed to by a Jewish West Bank or East Jerusalem resident?

Will the thuggish, childish activities of Ireland’s BDS campaigners, which include raiding supermarkets, attacking avocados, harassing and intimidating shoppers and staff, and much anti-Israel invective, be validated by the Bill?

Twenty four members of parliament spoke in a debate in favour of the measure in various forms but not a single one addressed its possible enforcement nor could identify what goods it might apply to or their value. Out of the 24 speakers only three made a brief ritual reference to the fate of the hostages held still in Gaza.

In 1979, Ireland enacted a nonsensical law that required those seeking condoms to first obtain a medical prescription and doctors to determine how many condoms per month a man should be permitted. Importation of condoms for sale without prescription was criminalised but individual could import as many as they wished for personal use. Arriving in Dublin airport customs officials could in theory determine whether the number of condoms  in a persons luggage was excessive. This farcical law made Ireland the subject of international ridicule, was never enforced and was ended in 1985.

The new Occupied Territories law now promised by the Irish government will not so much result in international ridicule but more likely international opprobrium and ignominy as blatantly antisemitic. The likelihood is the Irish government will be saved from itself by the EU denying the law its prior approval or the EU’s courts invalidating it as contrary to EU law.

Whether this Nazi copycat law will be critically referenced by President Trump when Ireland’s premier visits the White House this Wednesday to celebrate St Patricks Day is currently the subject of much speculation in Ireland and an Irish government concern. There is concern that it could undermine the bonhomie at the presentation of a bowl of shamrock.

As for me, it is important I make a declaration of interest. I have a habit of purchasing a new kippah when visiting the old city in Jerusalem and the Temple wall. I normally would also have a previously purchased one on my person. Should the law be enacted I want to know will I be arrested and prosecuted for attempting to import both or just my latest purchase upon my return to Dublin and will either or both be confiscated?

Alan Shatter is a former Irish Minister for Justice, Equality & Defence & a former chairperson of the Irish parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.