John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today is the 55th day of the mass hunger strike of Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons protesting against their ill treatment and internment without trial or charge. Their conditions are deteriorating daily. Approximately 80 hunger strikers have been hospitalised and many are in grave danger of losing their lives. The Israeli state is now trying to pass legislation that will allow the force-feeding of the strikers which prisoners have labelled a form of torture. Amnesty International and other groups around the world have said the same. The latest update I received some minutes ago from Palestine is that the Bill has passed the second and third reading in the Knesset and may very well be introduced into law by Monday.

It is the longest mass hunger strike among prisoners in Palestinian history and the hunger strikers remain steadfast in their demands to end the policy of administrative detention. I ask the Minister to condemn Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention which is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that internment can be used "only if security of the detaining power makes it absolutely necessary". Amnesty International has called Israel’s administrative detention arbitrary detention that fails to fulfil the international criteria for a just trial, and inhumane and degrading and it notes that Israel uses it to suppress the legitimate and peaceful activities of activists.

I have been informed that the 80 detainees who have now been taken to hospital had intrusive body searches. The cells in which they were kept were below basic standards. I believe those who have been taken to hospital have been shackled hand and foot to their beds. That is an outrage and an appalling human tragedy.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore, has constantly spoken on the inhuman treatment of the Palestinian people in general. Israel appears to listen to no one. As of 2008, Israel was in violation of 30 UN Security Council resolutions and 60 UN resolutions. The manner in which Israel treats the Palestinians would not be tolerated from any other state in the world. It is appalling and unacceptable. Given this country’s record in condemning human rights violations around the world, the time has come for us to call in the Israeli ambassador and make it clear to him that we will not accept people, some as young as 17 years of age, being arrested without charge, interned without charge and tortured. Prisoners have a right not to accept food under protest yet the state has gone so far as to commence the introduction of a law to force-feed the detainees. Ireland is a country that has always stood up for human rights around the world and condemned the Israelis. It is not good enough to simply show our concern, as some have suggested. We must express our condemnation.

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