The ball is now firmly back in the Government’s hands in relation to Ireland’s future trading relationship with Israel.
The Government had long maintained that there was nothing it could do about trade with Israel — citing the established rules of the EU that the bloc was the primary arbiter on international trade.
While there has been pressure applied by countries like Ireland and Spain in recent months over the EU-Israel association agreement, they have faced strong opposition in the big beasts of the EU like Germany and France who continue to back Israel despite the ongoing war in Gaza.
Any prospect of a review of the agreement, under its human rights clauses, will only come with agreement of other EU member states — which does not appear to be forthcoming any time soon.
The public have been among the voices calling for the Government to go further, exemplified by public protests that take place regularly on the streets of Dublin, Cork and towns around the country.
While Ireland has always had a high level of support for Palestine, there are few social issues that have gotten as much public attention across Ireland in recent years. Normally, foreign affairs stories dissipate quite quickly, but that has not been the case with the ongoing war in Gaza.
The public have been left disgusted and dismayed by the level of death and destruction that has been wrought on the Palestinian people by Israel. People see it daily on their social media fees, on their televisions and splashed across the pages of newspapers.
It is shown through the tens of thousands confirmed dead, the levelled buildings and bombed hospitals and through the starving children left without life-saving aid.
But chinks of light are now emerging for those who have long called for Ireland to push back against trade with Israel, as the impact of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion begins to sink in.
The ruling, which calls on all States to cease trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, has put pressure back to the Government to tackle the matter — with campaigners now believing that the Occupied Territories Bill is not only doable, but that it will only be a matter of time before it is passed by the Oireachtas.
The bill itself would prevent Ireland from importing goods that originate from illegal settlements, including those in the West Bank.
The bill — which has languished on the Oireachtas order paper for years — has long been held by the Government as being incompatible with European law, with Attorney General after Attorney General providing advice that it cannot be implemented.
But in recent days, the momentum has shifted slightly.
It all began with the Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who confirmed he was taking action to stop all future procurement of defence and security equipment from Israel in the wake of the ICJ ruling.
This was then followed, in short order, by Taoiseach Simon Harris declaring that he had sought updated legal advice over trade with Israel.
He said that such an action was “appropriate”, given the ruling from the ICJ and that “every lever” needed to be pulled to exert pressure on the Israeli Government to end the war in Gaza.
While the campaign to have the bill passed was being prepared, this news came in and has been welcomed by campaigners.
But they believe there has never been a barrier, citing Article 36 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. This section allows countries to restrict trade on grounds including public morality, policy or security.
The campaigners have said this allows Ireland to diverge from trade with Israel “on public policy grounds in order to protect fundamental rights”.
However, leaked advice from the former Attorney General Seamus Woulfe argued that there has been an “absence” of case law that would allow Ireland such an exemption.
However, campaigners received their own legal advice from two EU trade law experts — Professors Takis Tridimas and Panos Koutrakos — who have argued that the bill is now “necessary”.
They reference two separate cases — Schmidberger and Omega — where the European Court of Justice found that member states are permitted to deviate from EU law, even on freedom of movement, provided that it is to protect fundamental rights of individuals.
If acted upon, this could provide the government with leeway to restrict importation of goods from the occupied territories. With Government potentially moving on trade, campaigners are more optimistic about the future of the Occupied Territories Bill.
One campaigner – Éamonn Meehan of Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance — said he believes it is “no longer a question of whether, it’s a question of when”.
The campaign is not letting a looming general election stop it from pressuring the Government either, with calls being made for all political parties to support the Occupied Territories Bill within their individual manifestos.
With pressure likely to rise as the war continues to drag on, the three coalition partners will face a challenge on how to respond to the campaign in what could be a very different next Dáil.