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BDS Will Be Bad for Irish Business

(Wall Street Journal) Eugene Kontorovich - The Irish parliament is considering legislation that would put American companies in a legal bind. The Occupied Territories bill would make it a crime to trade with Israelis in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem. The bill harks back to the long-since abandoned Arab League boycott of Israel. It would require American companies with a substantial presence in Ireland to violate federal statutes designed to combat the earlier boycott. The bill's sponsors claim such rules are required for "compliance" with an International Court of Justice advisory opinion from last year. But advisory opinions create no legal obligations. Even assuming the territories in question are occupied as a matter of law, trade with them is legal under international law. The EU and the U.S. explicitly allow for the importation of such goods, with America labeling them "Made in Israel." In 1977, with broad bipartisan support, Congress enacted a law that prohibited American companies from taking actions "with intent to comply with, further, or support any boycott fostered or imposed by any foreign country, against a country which is friendly to the United States." The antiboycott law is about preventing American companies from being pressured by foreign countries to discriminate impermissibly. The writer, a professor at George Mason University School of Law, is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
2025-07-15 00:00:00
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