Irish State funds continue to have direct or indirect investments worth more than €10 million in Israeli companies with possible links to illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In November 2023, the then minister for finance, Michael McGrath, said he would bring a proposal to government on reducing the €4.2 million the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) had invested in 11 Israeli companies included on a United Nations database of 112 business entities with ties to such settlements.
ISIF last year divested from six of these companies, with the investments having had a value of some €2.95 million. The companies were Bank Hapoalim BM, Bank Leumi-le Israel BM, Israel Discount Bank Limited, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Limited, First International Bank Limited and Rami Levi Chain Stores Limited.
That has left direct ISIF investments worth €1.25 million in five Israeli companies. However, ISIF has also indirect investments in an additional eight companies on the UN list, worth some €9.4 million, bringing the total of direct and indirect investments to €10.65 million.
‘Bloodied but not bowed’: Connemara’s Misunderstood Heron food truck announces sudden closure
Leaving Cert student killed after car entered river in Co Tipperary named
Catriona Carey and brother Jack Carey sent forward for trial on company law charges
Protest held as US judge arrested and charged with obstructing immigration operation
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said the level of investment by ISIF in the companies on the UN list is “small compared to their market capitalisation”.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy, Mr Donohoe said: “Indeed, it is not clear as to the income such companies derive from activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
However, Mr Carthy said it was “not acceptable” that the State was continuing to invest in any company that might profit from Israel’s illegal settlements.
He also contended that, since November’s general election, there has been a “notable step-back” in the commitments made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to take meaningful actions in response to Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and particularly the genocide in Gaza.
“This must change. Israel must face consequences for their illegal actions and it is up to states like Ireland to take a lead in that,” he said.
Independent senator Frances Black brought forward the Occupied Territories Bill, currently before the House, and has been a long-time campaigner against illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
Despite the 2024 divestment, she said Ireland continues to hold Israeli government bonds and investments in enterprises on the UN database.
“Ireland needs to ensure that it immediately ends any trade with or investments in Israel’s illegal settlements in line with the International Criminal Court advisory opinion of last year,” she said.
Sinn Féin previously brought forward a Private Members’ Bill, the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023.
In a parliamentary reply earlier this year, Mr Donohoe said the previous government had engaged positively on that legislation.
However, in the same reply, Mr Donohoe distinguished between the state of Israel and the territories illegally occupied since 1967 in terms of the State’s investment strategy.
“ISIF’s modest holdings of Israeli sovereign debt as per the 2023 annual report total €2.62 million as part of its global portfolio is wholly consistent with Ireland’s policy of differentiation between the state of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967,” he said.
Meanwhile, in his first public statement since he was suspended indefinitely from the Social Democrats parliamentary party, Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes has said the government should immediately pass the Occupied Territories Bill.
Mr Hayes was suspended after he issued inaccurate statements regarding the timing of his disposal of shares in Palantir, a company he used to work for which has lucrative contracts with the Israeli Defence Forces.
Mr Hayes said he was “deeply concerned” that the Government seemed to have “no intention” of passing any sanctions against the Israeli government, which he said was “very clearly engaged in some of the most significant violations of international law by any developed world country in the post-war era”.
He said he believes he is the only member of the Dáil to have made passing the Bill a red-line issue prior to the general election.
