Foreign desk: Adopting BDS Could Cost Ireland Big-Time

Since its founding, the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel has largely been symbolic, with little practical effect. But as Bloomberg’s Eli Lake reports, Ireland’s parliament is “looking to change all this,” voting this week on a bill to criminalize any transactions with businesses or individuals in the West Bank. Crucially, “it would require foreign companies with divisions or subsidiaries in Ireland to adhere to the boycott as well.” Thanks to Ireland’s low tax rates, many of the world’s largest companies, especially US tech giants, keep their wealth there. This will force them to choose between their Irish tax haven and their considerable business in the Jewish state. If the bill succeeds (the Senate passed it last July), “Ireland would become the most anti-Israel nation on the planet outside of Iran and the Middle East.”