Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak in support of the motion, which will see Dáil Éireann officially recognise the state of Palestine. I am glad to see this recognition based on the 1967 border, as called for in numerous UN resolutions and by activists like the late Edward Said and the people of Palestine. A two-state solution has long been the goal of the Palestinian people. It was recognised as the most effective way forward since Palestine was a British territory but it is yet to be achieved.

Progress towards that end continues to be stymied, in part by acts of aggression. When we met the Palestinian ambassador recently, he told us that the greatest single barrier to progress is the continued encroachment of the illegal settlements. There has been conflict between Palestinians and Israelis for many decades, with untold thousands having lost their homes, their futures and their lives. The most recent conflict saw an estimated 2,200 people dead. More than 2,100 of them were Palestinians, of whom some 500 were children. The entire region has been repeatedly plunged into conflict and repeatedly destabilised.

I hope this motion will go some way towards maintaining international pressure for the 1967 border to be recognised, for the settlements programme to be discontinued, and for efforts towards lasting peace and reconciliation to begin in earnest between the peoples of Israel and Palestine. It is an historic motion which marks the Irish people's commitment, on Human Rights Day 2014, to the rights of all people. Ireland will be the 136th nation to recognise the state of Palestine and the ninth member of the European Union to do so. We the Irish nation and we the Irish Parliament are calling today for a long-term peace by way of recognition of the state of Palestine. We hope it will be one more small step towards a lasting peace and a future where all people in the region can live with dignity, without fear and with their human rights respected.

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