Israel on Monday moved the process of securing E.U. approval for its government bond prospectus to Luxembourg from Ireland, amid a breakdown in relations with Dublin over the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The move was a continuation of existing cooperation with Luxembourg on Israel’s tradable sovereign debt program, according to Reuters, which cited an email from the Israeli Finance Ministry. The shift will ensure Israel “maintains continuous access to investors worldwide,” according to the ministry.
The switch means that Luxembourg’s Central Bank will take over from Ireland’s in approving European prospectuses for the sale of Israeli bonds marketed by the Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd.
The development is not expected to affect the sale of Israeli bonds, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.
Ireland took the job over from the United Kingdom when the latter left the European Union in 2021. Ireland’s Central Bank had resisted calls to drop Israel, citing legal obligations to approve prospectuses once they contain all the necessary information as required under the E.U. prospectus.
Monday’s switch follows a series of anti-Israel actions undertaken by Ireland’s government, which last year joined South Africa’s legal action against Israel for alleged genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, and has sought to widen the tribunal’s definition of genocide to include blocking humanitarian aid. Earlier this year, Israel closed its embassy in Ireland in protest against this move.
Ireland‘s parliament is currently deliberating on a bill that would ban the import of products made in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, defining their sale as a criminal offense. It would be the only E.U. member state with such a law.
A few weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 invasion by Hamas terrorists into Israel, the Irish parliament passed a motion declaring that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.”
