John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I wish to respond to Mr. Shatter's comments that he found the meeting the other day with Sadaka and the Palestinian ambassador deeply depressing. I find the entire situation going on within Gaza at this point, where we have seen up to 69 people butchered, deeply depressing. I also find it depressing that not one of our speakers this morning could express any sympathy or remorse for any loss of life, either in Israel or in the Palestinian Territories. I find that deeply, deeply depressing. I offer my sympathies to the families of everyone who has lost their life.

The blockade of Gaza and the indiscriminate bombing are a collective punishment. We have seen residential buildings being targeted by Israel; we have seen police stations, a university, power lines, post offices and media towers being hit. The charge that has been made is that this is all an act of self-defence. How is butchering 69 people in indiscriminate bombings within Gaza self-defence? Of course,17 children were killed. I am holding a photograph of two of them here, Maryam and Zayed. Together with their mother Rima, who was pregnant, they were butchered in Gaza as part of Israel's self-defence. How can the witnesses justify that? They should have a good look at those children. A total of 17 children were killed. Are these Hamas terrorists? The witnesses might answer that question. How does Israel reconcile its actions within Gaza under international law? Under the Geneva Convention what Israel is perpetrating is a war crime.

I fundamentally believe all people have equal rights and the annexation that is ongoing in East Jerusalem, the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and constant settlement expansion, are the root causes of what is happening at this point in time. Do the witnesses blame Israel's own actions, in terms of the settlement expansions, the land-taking, the home demolitions, the evictions and the removal of Palestinians from areas Israel covets as the actual cause of the current crisis?

I have studied the maps of Palestine. I am sure everyone has looked at the map of 1967. It shows a continuous West Bank. What is left now after the illegal settlements and the annexation is a series of bantustans which look like South African ones, and we are familiar with the apartheid system that was in place in there. Is the apartheid system from South Africa the model Israel is using as a blueprint at this point? Since 1967 there have been more than 250 illegal Israelis settlements established throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem, inhabited by more than 650,000 settlers, with more than 250,000 occupying settlements in East Jerusalem. It is very clear from these illegal settlements, the application of laws and the pillaging of Palestinian resources that Israel has annexed massive parts of the West Bank. Does Israel intend on staying within the lands it occupies and has annexed since 1967? Its political leaders have stated they will never, ever leave those lands. Do our guests see a two-state solution as viable? If they do, I ask that they define what that solution would look like and what borders it wouldcontain. Why is it apparently legal for Jews to come and claim property in Israel while Palestinians do not have the same rights to claim homes and villages lost in 1948, and subsequently?

The Knesset is voting to legalise settlement outposts in the West Bank and to re-establish four settlements which Israel previously removed. How is that not annexation and how is it not a provocation and a cause of the conflict playing out at the moment? Having mentioned the Knesset, I raise the enactment of the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which came in on 19 July 2018. It sets forth the constitutional order of Israel and articulates the ethnic-religious identity of the state as exclusively Jewish. It alters the constitutional framework of the state, making changes that violate established international norms and bears distinct characteristics of apartheid. There is no democratic constitution in the world, that I can see, that designates the constitutional identity of the state on racial grounds, as serving one ethnic group on this basis, namely, this discriminatory law.

How does the ambassador believe that all citizens of Israel can enjoy equal rights?

I refer to the International Criminal Court, which is carrying out an investigation of war crimes perpetrated by Israel. Will Israel co-operate with that investigation? Pretending that the court does not have jurisdiction is not going to be much of an argument. Ireland strongly believes that the International Criminal Court is the body that should adjudicate on all matters such as what is being, and has been, done by Israel. It is imperative that the court has complete freedom to conduct its investigation.

I wish to raise a few other points. A number of reports have been published recently, one by Human Rights Watch and another by Al-Haq and B'Tselem-----