Israel is trying to have a "chilling effect" on Ireland by closing its embassy, Lynn Boylan has said.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar made the decision to close its embassy yesterday, claiming Ireland has "extreme anti-Israel tendencies".

The Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he believes in "the importance of maintaining diplomatic channels of communication" and said that he regrets that this decision has been made.

MEP Lynn Boylan said the closure of the Israeli Embassy is a reaction to the proposed Occupied Territories Bill.

If enacted, this bill would ban trade with Israel.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Ms Boylan said she welcomes the closure of the embassy.

"I think it's very important that people are aware that this is Israel trying to have a chilling effect on the Irish State about passing the Occupied Territories Bill," she said.

"Israel has still got an Embassy in South Africa so this is not about us joining the ICJ Case - it’s clearly about trying to set a marker that they don’t want Ireland to take the actions that the Irish people want the Government to take."

International law

Ms Boylan said Ireland is a country that "believes in international law".

"Israel currently has three different court opinions against it," she said.

"It has the May ICJ ruling on a plausible genocide. It has the July ICJ ruling that its presence in the Occupied Territories is illegal. And it has arrest warrants out for Netanyahu, its leader."

The MEP called on Ireland to defend these rulings.

"Israel is a rogue state that is committing a genocide on its innocent civilian population - over 40,000 people have now been killed," she said.

"What we do now is we pass the Occupied Territories Bill, which sends a very strong message to the rest of the world that we will stand up for international law - regardless of who it is that’s breaching it."

The Israeli flag at the Embassy in Dublin Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

Ms Boylan said the Israeli Government is trying to "weaponise" antisemitism.

"Antisemitism is something that’s very very real and very very important that we need to defend the Jewish community from antisemitism," she said.

"What the Israeli Government is doing is weaponising that word to try and have a chilling effect on people who are calling out their breaches of international law."

There are no plans for the Irish Embassy in Israel to close.

Feature image shows the Israeli Embassy and Lynn Boylan, RollingNews.ie