Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the prospect of Ireland joining a range of other countries in recognising a Palestinian state. However, notwithstanding that recognition, the oppression of Palestinians will continue. Tomorrow people there will mourn the death of the Palestinian Minister, Ziad Abu Ein, whose death epitomises what Palestinian people face on a daily basis. The Minister was participating in a peaceful protest against an illegal settlement when the Israeli defence forces fired tear gas at the protestors. Mr. Abu Ein was choked by an Israeli soldier. His death is horrific and yet another illustration of the barbaric nature of the Israeli regime.

It is a regime that daily persecutes its Palestinian minority. It is a regime which is currently proposing a law to eliminate any national rights of Arabs within the state of Israel. It is a regime that has repeatedly speeded up the building of settlements to prevent the emergence of any viable Palestinian state. It is a regime that enforces the occupation of the West Bank through the types of checkpoints at which Mr. Abu Ein met his death today. It is a regime that routinely slaughters the people it holds in the open-air prison camp that is Gaza, an area in which residents live in conditions of extreme poverty and extreme difficulty. It is a regime committed to the oppression, discrimination and persecution of the Palestinian people and opposed to any viable Palestinian state. It is a regime that cannot be reasoned with or brought to justice through international pressure.

This regime must and can be overthrown by the Palestinian people through the development of a new intifada along the lines of the first intifada, involving mass protests at checkpoints, mass strikes and mass movement from below. It must include an appeal to Jewish workers, the Jewish poor and people across the wider region, some of whom, unfortunately, as in the case of the Egyptian regime, are currently acting as the second jailers of the people of Gaza.

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