Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I had the privilege recently to meet Dr. Maqadma, the UN Relief and Works Agency chief for the medical field programme in Gaza. He was in Ireland at the invitation of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union, SIPTU, health division and gave me and others a first-hand report on the situation in Gaza as he had been there during the recent onslaught. It is a frightfully dreadful picture. Nothing I saw in the North compares with the plight of the people there. Perhaps the Penal days or some other point was comparable but nothing in recent times, as the Taoiseach knows as he has visited the area.

The Government has the wrong starting point. The starting point must be the Government stating it wants to do something about this issue, but it has not taken that decision. Once one takes that decision, it is A, B and C stuff. The Israeli Government is in breach of international law. The separation wall and the blockade of Gaza are in breach of international law. The settlements are illegal and in breach of international law. The apartheid system being put in place on the West Bank is also in breach of international law.

I have raised these matters with the Taoiseach since I became a Member of the House. I have referred to reports from EU heads of missions and other reports, put them before the Taoiseach and asked him to raise these matters, but he did not do so. During the recent onslaught the Irish Government abstained in a vote on a UN committee probing what was happening. If we do not stand up for international law, who will? As the Taoiseach acknowledged, we have a history both of resistance and, recently, peace-making. If he decided to do something about this, he would raise these matters in all the appropriate fora in which the Government is represented.

I have raised these issues with the Taoiseach, the former Minister, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, and the current Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, ach táim an-mhíshásta leis a bhfreagraí. Again, I make two suggestions which I have put to the Taoiseach in the past. One is to upgrade the Palestinian mission in Ireland.

This has nothing to do with anybody else. The mission is not afforded the same privileges, immunities, exemptions and facilities as are granted to other diplomatic missions in Dublin, pursuant to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. A simple act will afford recognition of the Palestinian state and its people.

The Swedish Government recently announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine and Sweden was the first long-term European Union member state to do so. Will the Government follow Sweden's example and take the same decision, which is entirely within its province and authority?

The Taoiseach conceded that the most recent destruction of Gaza may not be the last time it experiences such destruction. We all welcome the money the Government has contributed towards Gaza's reconstruction. Dr. Maqadma stated that the recent destruction was the second time Gaza had experienced such destruction in recent times. Will it happen again?

Will the Taoiseach highlight Israel's breaches of international law? Why does he not state clearly that illegal settlement expansion should stop and that the separation wall, blockade of Gaza and apartheid system are wrong? Upgrading the Palestinian mission and recognising the state of Palestine would not be a judgment on the people of Israel. These steps would simply afford to the Palestinian people the same recognition that has been afforded to the people of Israel.

See this speech in context