Potential job losses in Ireland are a “price we should be willing to pay” to end trade with Israel, a former UN peacekeeper has said. 

A new report The Price of Prosperity: How US FDI is Enabling Genocide in Gaza and Eroding Our Neutrality commissioned by Uplift, People Powered Change has concluded that Ireland’s economy is hugely dependent on Israel, due to the strong links between US tech companies and the Middle Eastern nation. 

It noted that Ireland’s reliance on American foreign direct investment means that the Republic’s “economic model has also created a deep, structural link with Israel, making Ireland the world's second-largest importer of Israeli goods by 2024”. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, journalist and former UN peacekeeper Colin Sheridan described the links between Ireland and Israel as “not something that has happened overnight”. 

 “It’s not that we’re importing oranges from Israel and consuming them on some massive level,” he explained. 

“It’s the soft services; it’s technological service, it’s money passing through the Irish financial sector that we then benefit from in corporation tax and tax windfalls that are operating here.” 

Israeli children flying kites on Mount Gerizi. Picture by: Alamy.com.

The Oireachtas is currently considering the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025, which would ban the importation of goods to Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are illegal under international law. 

However, the bill would allow Irish firms to continue to provide services to people or companies based in those same areas. 

“It could include, for example, tourism services - organising or promoting tours and settlements in the Occupied Territories,” Mr Sheridan said. 

“Financial services, investments or insurance or brokerage related to settlement enterprises. 

“Or construction or consultation, engineering, IT digital services, software, website hosting - all of those elements.” 

Israeli Settlements in the West Bank. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Mr Sheridan added that this means the legislation could “have very little material benefit” when it comes to reducing trade between Ireland and Israel. 

“Because the size of that investment coming in is so small - because it refers to the Occupied Territories,” he said. 

“Given everything that has unfolded in the last two years, we should be looking to divest ourselves and move away from having economic ties with Israel.” 

When asked whether he regards trade with nations accused of human rights violations, such as China, who are accused of committing genocide against the Uighur people, Mr Sheridan said he believed trade should be as ethical as possible. 

He added that he felt Ireland’s trade with the United States is “hugely problematic”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Picture by: Tasos Katopodis / Government of Ireland.

“I think where you should start is having an economic vision where you’re building, over decades, a way of being more self-sustaining as a country,” he said. 

“And more discerning, maybe, in who you chose to do business with. 

“If that makes us economically a poorer country, [rather than] being complicit in human rights abuses and in this case genocide, is a price we should be willing to pay.” 

Israel continues to deny that its action in Gaza constituted a genocide against the Palestinian people.

Former Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall described proposals to cut trade ties with countries with poor human rights records amounted to the politics of “an ideal world which doesn’t exist”.

Main image: Split of an empty wallet and an Israeli flag. Pictures by: Alamy.com.