Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi:

First, I thank the committee for receiving us and I thank the Irish people, whom the committee represents, for their warm welcome and the great feeling of solidarity we feel with the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian rights to freedom and independence.

During the last 25 years Palestinians were pressured by the international community to give up the dream of having a one-state solution, a single democratic state where everybody would live together in equality. We were pressured to accept a two-state solution, the decision which was made by the United Nations in 1947. It decided that there should be a Palestinian state on no less than 44% of the land of Palestine. We came to negotiations. It has been 25 years since negotiations started. The Palestinian Liberation Organization and other structures completely concentrated on a non-violent approach and on negotiations. During these 25 years, as the members will see from some of the slides that will be distributed to them, instead of having peace, freedom and independence we witnessed an increase of illegal settlement activity, from 111,000 settlers in 1993 to more than 750,000 settlers today. We have seen the transformation of the military occupation, which is the longest in modern history, into a system of apartheid. It is a far worse system of discriminatory apartheid than what prevailed in South Africa at one time.

We have witnessed the continuation of the deprivation of 6 million Palestinian refugees of their right to go home, the right to return to the places from which they were displaced in 1948 in one of the worst forms of ethnic cleansing. Today, things are getting worse because the Israeli Government feels it has impunity to, and is above, international law. It feels it can violate international humanitarian law with impunity as well. The Israeli public, unfortunately, is increasingly turning towards extremism and is electing racist governments.

This situation is intolerable. It is that way because the Israeli Government and the Israeli people are benefitting from the occupation. It is a profitable occupation and a profitable system of apartheid. This cannot be changed except in two ways - Palestinian struggle to change the balance of power and international solidarity with the Palestinian people. Palestinians have only one of two options. They either turn to violence or stick to the non-violent approach, which we are choosing. However, that non-violent approach will not succeed unless there are strong international activities in support of the Palestinian people. That is why we urge Ireland, a country that also suffered from colonialism and an oppressive colonialist system and a country that understands people's struggle for freedom, to make its contribution to supporting the Palestinian struggle.

It can do so first by immediate recognition of the Palestinian state. That recognition should be made as soon as possible because it makes a difference. Ireland should be in the avant-garde of countries that take that responsibility. Second, we urge Ireland to pass legislation that forbids the import of products produced by an occupying power in an occupied territory. This would apply to all occupied territories anywhere in the world and specifically to the occupied territories in Palestine. Preventing settlement products from reaching this market and boycotting such products would be a great contribution to supporting justice, the principles of international law and to supporting Ireland's own laws. We also hope there will be no form of military co-operation with Israel as a government that is occupying another country and a state that, unfortunately, is practising a profound system of apartheid and discrimination.

My colleague, Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, will explain further the aspects of the apartheid system that Israel has created.