Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was not going to come in today but I was inspired to do so after I heard the witnesses speak. I welcome this report. It was joyful to read it and look at the recommendations. This report lays bear in brilliant detail what Palestinians have said for decades, namely, that they are living under a system of apartheid. There is no doubt about that. We know that B'Tselem and others have said the same thing. B'Tselem is Israel's biggest human rights organisation. We in Ireland have stood for human rights and played an important role in opposing apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. Ireland has an obligation to act on this now.

In 2018, I was in the West Bank and Gaza. I do not know how I got in but I did. I cannot explain the big impact that had on me. It left a mark on me that I will never forget. I saw the blatant apartheid with my own eyes. I went to Hebron where I saw how Palestinian people were moved out of their homes and businesses, up into the mountains. They were not allowed to walk down their own streets. Imagine if, on Dublin's Grafton Street, people were moved out of where they lived, apartments or businesses, taken out somewhere and then not allowed to walk up even to look at where they used to live. This is in the West Bank under the so-called two-state solution. I drove through the settlements. People have this image of the settlements being little huts, but it was like driving through Florida. There were palm trees, shopping centres, big fountains, swimming pools and when you drive around the corner people have no water and their electricity has been cut off. They are living in deprivation and poverty. People cannot drive down their own roads. If they have a certain licence plate, they are not allowed to drive on the main roads but must drive another route. Kids in Hebron, instead of going 200 m to their school from where they live, have to walk two miles because soldiers were there. We were allowed to go down those streets because we were with an Israeli citizen, an ex-Israeli soldier from Breaking the Silence. He told us, on that trip, that when he and other soldiers were going on duty from midnight until 8 a.m., they were told to make their presence felt. He said they had to go into homes in the middle of the night and terrorise those people so that all their neighbours would hear them. That was making their presence felt. Sometimes they would insult the women to get the men going. They would do that from midnight until 8 a.m. The chances are that will happen tonight while we are asleep in our beds. That is the reality. That is what I saw.

I cannot tell our guests what this means to me. The International Court of Justice, ICJ, states that these settlements are illegal and break international law. We are trying to do something that is not major by any means. All we are trying to do to make a point is not receive goods from settlements. By receiving these goods, we in Ireland are breaking international law. When I started to campaign for the occupied territories Bill, I held public meetings around the country. People were hanging from the rafters at those meetings. They were crowded. People were turned away from them. In this country we know what it must be like for the Palestinian people.

This report means so much to me and the Irish people. I cannot thank Amnesty International enough for it. At last, we have an organisation like Amnesty International saying that this is apartheid. It was the same in the 1980s. The Irish Government in the 1980s would not support legislation at that time, and it was the people in Ireland who changed the course of what happened in South Africa in the 1980s. I believe the people might do the same again. I intend to hold meetings again in this country, with this report, to say "This is apartheid". That is what I would like to see happen in this country. It is not just about the Government and what it is saying. This is about what the people are saying.

I have two questions for Mr. Higazi. One is about the occupied territories Bill. What would it mean to the Palestinian people to have the occupied territories Bill passed in this country? I have been invited to many countries in Europe, as well as Chile and other countries to talk about the occupied territories Bill because people in those countries want to introduce similar legislation.

I have not got around to visiting them all. What would it mean to the Palestinian people? I remember when we could not get the occupied territories Bill in the programme for Government. When we brought it in during the last term, all Opposition parties, including Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, supported us. When it was discussed as part of the programme for Government, it was taken off the programme, which was devastating. What was that like for the Palestinian people? Is Mr. Higazi aware of what that was like for them, because I know I got hundreds of emails from them asking what was going on. They thought Ireland was going to help them. They thought Ireland was going to stand up for what was right, and for them. The Palestinian people are looking to Ireland to help them. That is why this report is so important, and I cannot thank Amnesty enough.