Mr. Omar Barghouti:

I will try to answer the six questions as succinctly as possible. I thank the Senator for raising those very important points. We deeply appreciate Sinn Féin's support for the BDS movement. It is important that the Senator has mentioned South Africa in this context because Ireland, in particular, played a leading role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against apartheid South Africa. Although British artists like to think that they were the first, Irish artists were the first to call for a cultural boycott of South Africa. South Africans and Palestinians know this history quite well. Regarding some of the issues the Senator has raised, regardless of the BDS movement, Palestinians are asking Ireland and other states to fulfil their legal obligations.

This is a key issue connected to the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, which was deferred, as the Senator mentioned, which would prohibit the entrance into Ireland of products of illegally built settlements in occupied territories, which obviously applies to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem as defined by the United Nations. We think this would be a basic first step. It does not fulfil all of Ireland's obligations. It is the beginning of fulfilling Ireland's obligations under international law. We do not buy the pseudo-legal argument made by the Government about why it is deferring this, saying that it abides by EU directives and laws. There is nothing in EU legislation that would prevent Ireland or any European state that is a member of the EU from fulfilling its legal obligations. Those obligations are triggered because settlements are considered a war crime in international law. Building settlements is a war crime. It triggers legal obligations for all countries. This is basic international law. Ireland is obligated by it and it became part of domestic Irish law that international law applies in Ireland.

Another point is military embargo. One of the main slogans raised by the tens of thousands of unarmed protestors in Gaza, protesting against the siege and for the right of return for refugees, is for a military embargo now. Amnesty has called for a military embargo. That is a basic responsibility, to export no weapons to an area of conflict regardless of what one's opinions are on the conflict. The Irish Government claims that it does not have much of a military trade but some facts we have seen show that millions of euro worth of weapons, weapon parts or technology used for weaponry or military purposes are bought from and sold to Israel.

The Irish Government claims that it does not have much military trade but evidence we have seen shows that there is, indeed, millions of euro worth of weapons, weapon parts or technology used for weaponry and for military purposes being sold to and brought from Israel. This needs to stop because the highest priority demand of the Palestinians everywhere is to stop arms trade with Israel.

Regarding Ms Ahed Tamimi and the hundreds of other Palestinian children in Israel prisons, this issue has been raised even in the US Congress, where it is really difficult, and several congressmen and women have courageously sponsored a Bill that would withhold US aid to Israel equivalent to the amount used in detaining, interrogating and torturing Palestinian children. Coming from the US, from the belly of the beast, as it were, this would be an important move, and we hope that Ireland can push the EU to take similar action, not only of condemnation but accountability, on child prisoners in Israeli prisons.

The Trump Administration's Jerusalem embassy move is very dangerous, not only for Palestinians but for the entire region, if not the world. Trump is undoing decades of US foreign policy and he is isolating US policy from the international consensus. The United Nations and an absolute majority of nations around the world do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem and all of them recognise East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory. In fact, Trump is isolating the US from this international consensus. In a way, he is lighting a powder keg in a dangerous way in a very volatile area to start with. We think this will enable Israel to build more settlements, to kill more Palestinians, to arrest more children, and to confiscate more Palestinian land and continuing with its ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, especially in East Jerusalem to colonise the city.

Finally, on civil society and the political leadership, the Chairman is absolutely right that there has not been any election in a number of years for Palestinians. However, most recently, the PLO, which still symbolises the leadership of the Palestinian people everywhere despite its many problems and despite many demands to democratise the PLO, has adopted BDS. Even the highest authority among the Palestinians has adopted BDS. Among civil society, NGOs, trade unions, women's unions, academics and farmers' unions, there is wall-to-wall support for BDS. Every main entity among Palestinians, in Palestine as well as in exile, has adopted BDS as one of the most effective popular resistance movements and as the most effective movement of solidarity with Palestinian rights.