Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

Amnesty International's Report on Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Ireland Israel Alliance

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has obviously been a considerable amount of conversation with regard to Israel and its security. My argument or contention is that security can only be delivered if people can share a land and they will only get that when they have a deal with those with whom they share that land. The fact is people do not necessarily pick the leadership they deal with. Yes, there are huge issues with the Palestinian leadership and a split leadership does not really help anybody.

I will go back to some of the questions. At the end of the day, we are dealing with people who are living under military occupation. There is a huge power differential; that is it. Israel is a nuclear power with a huge military capacity. One can make arguments as to why that is the case but those are the facts. How do people make peace at a time when Israel is increasing the settlements and taking land from Palestinians, even if we leave every other issue out of it? The argument that will be made is that the Oslo Accords were to a degree - I am not saying they were but that argument was put out there - almost a cover that gave a facility whereby the reality on the ground could be changed literally by putting people in place. I am not stating that is the case. I believe it was probably a lost opportunity in the 1990s. We are where we are now, however. I do not hear or see anything, particularly from an Israeli Government point of view or in politics within Israel at this point, that looks anything like it will move towards any sort of accommodation that can end this or that serves anybody in that particular part of the world and beyond. Nobody wants to make political points about Palestine. We want to see a situation where it is de-escalated and people can have their rights. The fact is they must be given human rights and an element of legal rights. They cannot believe they are absolute second-class citizens in the land they were born. That is very difficult when people are under military occupation, especially the occupation they are under at this time.

I particularly want an answer to the question on the annexation of lands. It is very difficult to see how they can get a settlement as this happens. It is very difficult to see it as anything other than Israel taking as much ground as it possibly can, which changes the reality for whenever a deal is done and maybe changes the nature of the deal. Many people believe the two-state settlement is gone. I cannot make a determination in that regard but that is just because of the size of the settlements. I do not think us having a conversation serves any purpose with regard to who the Palestinian people are and whether they are Arabs and not Palestinians. The fact is a sufficient number of people in Palestine see themselves as Palestinians, so that is the reality. We can all go back and throw facts from before and after 1948 or any which way we want; it will not serve any purpose.

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