2 March 2022, Dublin, Ireland
Minister, myself and deputy John Brady requested this debate at the business committee on Amnesty International's utterly damning report that Israel is a state that is operating a system of apartheid, and in doing so are committing crimes against humanity, and call for sanctions to ensure that that system, that inhumane and inhuman system, is dismantled.
Now we called for this debate prior to the barbaric invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin. And all of us have rightly condemned the crimes against humanity that are being committed by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. And the government has moved instantly, within five days, to sanction Putin's regime and take urgent action. And the strength of language that was used, rightly against Putin, as a barbarian, as a thug, as a murderer, as a warmonger, all of which are true, all of those things, all of those things applied, applied to the state of Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians. And yet the government is 'concerned' about its use of language, and doesn't feel it is appropriate to even use the word apartheid, when Amnesty International, the most respected human rights organisation in the world, and Human Rights Watch, within a very short period of time, issue these damning reports saying that Israel, since its foundation, has been built on a system of oppression and domination and apartheid and racism Involving the murder of unarmed innocent civilians on a regular basis, arbitrary detention and imprisonment, land annexations, the displacement of people, the denial of basic fundamental rights to six million Palestinians who are displaced outside Israel in the Occupied Territories to the rights of their return to their homes, to the illegal blockade of Gaza, which is left, as they say in the report, 'Gaza in a permanent state of humanitarian crisis', denying people access to food, to water, and treating the Arab population as a whole, the Palestinian population as a whole, as an inferior race.
I mean, it doesn't get stronger than this, And yet you want to be careful about your language. You are happy to correctly use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing the Israel's treatment of the Palestinians when it is now being documented and detailed by two of the most respected human rights organisations in the world. And indeed has been alleged by dozens and dozens of non-governmental organisations. And to be honest, anybody who looks honestly at the decades of brutal inhumane, persecution of the Palestinian, successive assaults on Gaza, the annexation of the land and territory, the systematic application of apartheid rules, you don't want to even use the word 'apartheid'. Nevermind sanctions. Five days, sanctions against Putin and his thugs, Seventy years of oppression of the Palestinians. And it wouldn't be —what was the word you used? — It wouldn't be 'helpful' to impose sanctions.
Amnesty International are calling for Israel to be referred to the international criminal courts for crimes against humanity. Will you support it? They are calling for targeted sanctions against Israeli officials who are perpetuating the system of apartheid. Just exactly the same types of sanctions you've just initiated against Vladimir Putin, will you support it? And I think the answer is clearly, you're not going to.
And then we asked the question why. Why? With such strength of feeling Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and Green TDs stood up one after the othe,r saying it was intolerable the thuggery and the warmongering and the brutality of Putin, you wouldn't stand for it, urgent action had to be taken, but we've got to be much more careful with the Palestinians and their treatment. And I haven't even got time to [talk about] the briefing I organised this week about the people of Yemen, and how Saudi Arabia, the most despotic regime in the world, armed to the teeth by the United States, Britain, France, and others, killing 337,000 people in Yemen in the last five years, 10,000 children, any action against the United States for arming them? Or Britain or France? Or Saudi itself?
No, no action, no sanctions, no outrage, words of concern. 'We'll raise it'. 'We'll raise it'. 'We'll call on them to do things'. Now you see, if you're going to have moral standards, those standards have to be consistent, otherwise they are not standards at all. They are just cynicism. And of course, we all know the reason that the standards are not consistent is because to call out the apartheidstate of Israel, would be to run foul of the concerns of certain states that are now presenting themselves as defenders of democracy.and so on, such as the United States, the UK, Germany, and other powers. Whose relationship with Israel, supporting it and backing, it, means that the European Union's moral credentials are bankrupted. And that they are not willing to take the action.
And we go along with that.
That is not acceptable. So I appeal to you, minister. I appeal to you, to uphold the tradition this country has, going right back to its foundation, to opposing oppression of peoples, and standing up against brutal powers that are willing to subjugate people, like the Palestinians or any others.
Show some moral backbone, show some consistency, and support the motion that we have circulated to every TD in this house, which Sinn Fein have now signed, which the number of the Left Independents, which People Before Profit have signed, calling for the adoption of the recommendations of the Amnesty report and for the sanctions that must follow that they recommend. Will you support those things? Because if you don't, to be honest, all the words of concern, all the raising it, means nothing to the Palestinian people.