Using Ireland's reliance on foreign direct investment, Israeli government officials and a US legal organisation coordinated to pressure the Irish government to drop the Occupied Territories Bill.
Hacked meeting notes say, “Irish government was opposed to the law, but they are a minority government. Would rather that voices of opposition came from Europe, rather than from within Israel.”
The meeting came months before then foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney used a controversial constitutional provision to block the bill.
Israeli justice and foreign affairs officials attended the November 2018 meeting along with the founder of The Lawfare Project, a litigation fund that opposes boycotts of Israel, according to the notes.
Lawfare Project founder Brooke Goldstein said her organisation was seeking to ensure government blocked the Occupied Territories Bill and was “working with network of pro-Israel organisations”.
‘Voices of opposition’
Marlene Mazel and Hadie Cohen from the Israeli Ministry of Justice attended the 22 November, 2018 Tel Aviv meeting to discuss Ireland’s Occupied Territories Bill, along with Batzion Bendavid Gerstman from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
They suggested contacting international chambers of commerce and focusing on Irish business sectors conducting the most trade with the US.
The Israeli officials were also tracking legal challenges to the Occupied Territories Bill.
Though acknowledging the publication of an expert opinion that found the bill didn’t breach EU law, Marlene Mazel, who heads Israel's Counterterrorism and Foreign Litigation Division, said they had "received legal advice to the contrary”.
Mazel said UK Lawyers for Israel had produced a memo outlining potential breaches of EU law and World Trade Organization rules.
Bendavid Gerstman, then a legal advisor at Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the recent vote was "only step three of about 10 steps to promulgate the law”. She also noted the Irish government’s opposition to the law.
Brooke Goldstein, whose Lawfare Project uses litigation to counter boycott movements against Israel, updated the government officials on her work,
“Lawfare is working with network of pro-Israel organisations – focusing on damage the new law would cause to Ireland's business sector, both in terms of foreign companies divesting from Ireland and the ability of Irish companies to conduct business in the US,” the meeting notes say.
Goldstein also spoke about cases against Airbnb over its settlement policy and efforts to prevent Palestinian activist Leila Khaled from speaking at European events.
Three months after the meeting finance minister Paschal Donohoe had a secret "confidential call" with his Israeli counterpart, assuring him government would "block" the Occupied Territories Bill – a call Donohoe now denies took place.
Last November The Ditch reported that then U.S ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin warned the Irish government of "consequences" if the Occupied Territories Bill proceeded. Ninety minutes after receiving Cronin's email, tánaiste Micheál Martin announced the bill would be reviewed rather than enacted.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has since said the legislation must not "disadvantage Ireland unduly", citing US anti-BDS legislation that would "penalise any company that, from an American perspective, participates in boycotts."
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been contacted for comment.
