Dr. Noura Erakat:

Thanks to Dr. Power, Ireland now has almost a buffet of options in how to respond. Ireland can approach this from a fully frontal position of unequivocal condemnation of Israel's annexation and intention to maintain an apartheid regime or instead it can approach it in a piecemeal fashion in an administrative way through politics of non-recognition and supporting initiatives on business and human rights. This is not about a lack of options, this is not a question of what to do; this is about political will. I am somebody in the United States, at the heart of Israel's primary patron, the provider of military aid and unequivocal economic and diplomatic support, where when Palestinians are murdered, it is read in the US as Israeli vulnerability. Palestinian deaths in the US are refracted through a lens that tells those who are watching that Israel is unsafe. This is the perversion that we exist in, and it accentuates the level of dehumanisation that Palestinians are enduring. On the one hand, it emphasises that if the Irish Parliament does nothing, there might be very little cost because Palestinians have been so thoroughly dehumanised that the political cost of doing nothing might be very little and Ireland can continue matter of factly with business as usual. On the other hand, it also emphasises that Ireland has within its hands the responsibility to change the course of history, to be a part of a course of history that looks back and says it was part of the solution that ended apartheid. It stood on the side of justice. It continued an Irish legacy of resistance, of principles. I was invited on a book tour and was visiting Dublin just two years ago and I have never felt such a visceral connection to a people because of our shared histories of resistance. Ireland too could have had a different history if there was not support and there was not the courage of a people to say, despite the low political cost, we will make this sacrifice. This is what connects us.

Regarding the question about the two-state solution, again I can give members all the empirical evidence that they need. I will also provide them with a laundry list. Palestinians have seen the writing on the wall. The 1993 Oslo accords and the subsequent agreements that have been drafted afterwards have never ensured that there will be a Palestinian state. The first Israeli leader to even articulate that there would be a Palestinian state as a result of these peace processes was Ehud Barak in 2000, but the documents themselves only promised derivative sovereignty or Palestinian autonomy. The fact is that today the Palestinian state is obsolete because Palestinians are separated from one another through 20 non-contiguous bantustans, or what we would recognise in the US as Indian reservations, which by the way I know that leaders who know colonial history will know was something that was developed in North America to contain and suppress indigenous self-determination and sovereignty and was then adopted in South Africa through the leadership of Jan Smuts and is now being transferred to Palestine. There is a colonial circuit and circulation of knowledge. What we are seeing is in fact not new at all. What becomes new is Israel insisting that it has the right to do this, that it is righteous in its colonisation, that the world should look the other way because unlike other people they are a victim and, therefore, whoever is their victim should be forgotten.

There are 20 non-contiguous bantustans, an annexation wall is being built since 2000 that at the end of its construction will confiscate another 13% of the West Bank, as 85% of the wall runs through the West Bank. The Jordan Valley is de facto annexed, and that is 30% of the West Bank. There are bypass roads that are off limits to Palestinians. There are military zones that are firing zones. There are checkpoints. My cousin was murdered at a checkpoint on his sister's wedding day this past summer. He was travelling from Abu Dis to Bethlehem. Those are two Palestinian cities. He could not travel, and he was shot and killed at a checkpoint. His body remains in captivity in a freezer at Tel Aviv University. Palestinians on the West Bank cannot travel. People have been calling to ask how my family is. I say they are fine, because they are not allowed to go into Jerusalem. Palestinians in the West Bank cannot enter Jerusalem. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the supposed two parts of the Palestinian state, cannot visit one another. If a Palestinian from Gaza is found in the West Bank, he or she is deported back to Gaza. This is separation and segregation. This is an attempt to undermine our national cohesion. Jerusalem has been explicitly annexed since 1980, despite UN Security Council Resolution 480 condemning it. In 2016, another UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemned it and yet the situation remains the same. I am not sure what the international community is waiting for. What it sounds like is that even if Israel says that is it, there is no Palestinian state, the international community will respond and ask what are the prospects of Palestinian statehood. We should get back to talking.

Israel is not looking for a state. Israel is going to concentrate us on the smallest plot of land, put a flag on it and say that they have given us a state. That is not what we need. We are looking for the right to belong; we are looking for the right to exist. We do not want to be erased. A formal state does not nothing to protect us in the fact of this reality. So, no, there is no two-state solution and it has been obsolete since 2001. It has been held up on stilts and we patiently wait for Israel to tell us when this is over. This matter is really about political will and resistance so the impetus is on all of us, not merely on this committee, as committee members, doing us this work to challenge the status quoand deep dehumanisation to change the course of history. I thank Dr. Power for providing the committee with a litany of options for how to proceed with that in baby steps or strides.