Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before I came to the Chamber I was watching CNN and other news stations. Deputy Colreavy referred to the rendition flights through Shannon Airport. It was heartening to see elected American representatives, including Senator John McCain, publicly confirming that torture took place and that people were taken away from various countries in the Middle East and elsewhere and obviously flown through Shannon Airport before some of them were taken to Guantanamo Bay. Again nobody on the Government side spoke out here. The usual people spoke out - the people who are concerned about the rights and entitlements of people, and about injustice and wrongs throughout the world. The Government just sat on its arse and did nothing about it.

Last year, Deputy Keating and I travelled to Jordan along with other European parliamentarians. We had the occasion to visit a 1948 refugee camp, a 1967 refugee camp and a current refugee camp on the Syrian border. We witnessed the plight of Palestinian refugees. They have been abused by many states. They cannot even avail of third level education because they are refugees in Jordan. It was enlightening for me to see what some human beings do to other human beings. There were tens of thousands of people living in the biggest concentration camps in the world.

There are many things on which to fight the Government and yet the Irish people in the cause of international solidarity came out in their thousands over the summer, on the last occasion that the Israelis assaulted Gaza. For the record, 2,200 Palestinian people were killed in Gaza and 64 Israeli soldiers were killed. Those are the figures currently available. The Irish people, who came out at that time, came out in solidarity with the Palestinian people over injustices perpetrated by big powers. I was really struck by the decency of the Irish people. They hate injustice and repression whether it is at home or abroad. There were demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza all over the country and we know from Sinn Féin’s strong links with the Palestinian people how much they appreciate our solidarity and moral support.

Moral support means supporting someone psychologically or with solidarity but the Irish people also stepped up when it came to material support to the people of Gaza to help relieve the immeasurable suffering of the people there and to help them rebuild after the devastation of Israeli bombardment and destruction by ground troops.

Any government which would call itself progressive has a role in leading its people. However, in solidarity with the people of Palestine as with all kinds of other issues, it was the Irish people who gave leadership, not the Government. The Irish people were ahead of the Government in their solidarity with the Palestinian people and finally the Government is listening. It is very encouraging that it is prepared to accept the motion before the House.

Instead of standing up against Israeli violations of international law and human rights abuses during the Gaza invasion, the Government along with many other governments stood back. Instead of taking an independent and morally correct position, the Government remained silent in the face of the suffering of the people of Gaza. For too long the Government hid behind the EU pretence that Ireland is too small to have an impact as if it had no independent foreign policy. The Irish people were embarrassed and ashamed, in the middle of the last onslaught on Gaza, when the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, on behalf of the State, abstained on the United Nations Human Rights Council vote to condemn Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Yesterday's newspapers reported that 28 people in an extended family were killed in a bombing of a house. Eighteen of them were children. The Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, did not even have the decency to support that as a war crime.

This State should have been leading the way within the EU. Seven EU member states already recognise Palestine, although they did so before they ever joined the European Union. Sweden became the first EU member state to recognise Palestine when it joined 134 other members of the United Nations to do so.

By the Government's words today, Ireland is now part of that majority of full members of the United Nations that recognises the Palestinian state. The step to recognition is not a giant one and it is one the people support.  As we have already upgraded the mission of Palestine, it is nearly an embassy already. In November 2012 Ireland supported the motion at the United Nations to upgrade Palestine’s status as a non-member observer state. It is welcome that the Government has taken the next step to reflect the views of the people and openly and proudly declared its support for the achievement of a sovereign state of Palestine. This is our chance to do so and support the Palestinians' right to self-determination. Israel has no right to be building illegal settlements on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem. It has no right of veto over the Palestinian right to self-determination, yet Palestine has been blockaded and occupied.

I commend every Deputy who is supporting the motion and especially commend my colleagues in Sinn Féin Party for taking the initiative.

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