While a high-profile Israel boycott bill has reportedly stalled in Ireland, the country’s National Treasury Management Agency is moving ahead with an investment strategy that could achieve a similar outcome.
According to a Jan. 17 report in The Times, the NTMA plans to use a United Nations database of companies doing business in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem to exclude “certain companies” from investments by the Future Ireland Fund, a government sovereign wealth fund valued at approximately $14.8 billion.
The fund’s published investment guidelines state that investments may be excluded based on specific criteria and that “a small number of discretionary exclusions have been so identified to date,” including companies in several categories. Among those categories are “certain companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in specified activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
The U.N. database—widely criticized as a blacklist—was approved by then- U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president and outspoken critic of Israel. Bachelet was nominated last week as a candidate to serve as the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
The database, which has since been expanded, includes not only Israeli companies but also several large American and European entities, such as Motorola and Airbnb.
The Times reported that NTMA “did not specify which companies it was planning to ban from investment.” The agency’s investment strategy states that exclusions would be used only as a “last resort,” with “stewardship” being “the preferred way to effect change.” (JNS reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.)
The NTMA move comes as Ireland’s proposed Occupied Territories Bill—which would ban goods and services from Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem—remains stalled in parliament. Once viewed as a fait accompli, the legislation has been delayed amid U.S. pressure urging Dublin to abandon the measure altogether.
The Trump administration warned that legislation promoting a boycott of Israel would violate U.S. anti-boycott laws, potentially forcing American companies operating in Ireland to cease business there.
The American Chamber of Commerce Ireland says U.S.-owned companies employ 245,000 people in Ireland, representing 8.75% of total employment in the country, and contribute over $47 billion to the Irish economy annually.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said he was invited by U.S. President Donald Trump for a meeting at the White House on St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on Tue. Mar. 17.
