Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am proud to speak on this motion and to have signed my name in support of it. In 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations called for a two-state solution in the region then known as the Palestinian Mandate, one Jewish and one Arab, with an international regime for the city of Jerusalem. In 1948 we saw the creation of Israel and the outbreak of violence, followed by the establishment of the Green Line the following year. In 1967, following the Six-Day War, the occupation by Israel of the lands that are now known as the West Bank and Gaza took place. That occupation has lasted for almost 50 years, far in excess of any military justification for its observance in the first place.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 opened up the prospect of a two-state solution. As part of that process, there was an explicit recognition by the Palestinian side of the right to existence of Israel. In the past 20 years, however, the principles of international law upon which the Israeli occupation is supposed to be governed were routinely and systematically disregarded. In the occupied Palestinian territories today, half a million Israeli settlers are living in more than 250 settlements, all of them in contravention of the fourth Geneva Convention and all of them declared illegal by the International Court of Justice. The advisory opinion of that respected and independent court declared illegal the Israeli wall, which annexes 16% of the West Bank, not only because of the land grab itself but also because of its impact on the civilian population. That barrier separates people from their farmlands, sunders communities and has a major commercial and agricultural impact. The report of the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the implications of the Israeli settlements for the social, economic and cultural rights of Palestinians outlines in horrific detail the plight of a people living in a two-tier society where their rights are inferior to those of the other group with whom they share the region.

When we discuss Israel and Palestine, our focus always should be on the international human rights and humanitarian law that ought to apply to the situation. The existence of one state should never be subservient to or at the whim of another state. That is an important principle which should be acknowledged. Palestinians have a right to reside in their homeland, as was indicated by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947. Ireland voted in favour at the General Assembly some years ago of giving Palestine state status. The motion before the House is not just symbolic; it is a powerful statement that this State acknowledges not only Israel's right to exist but also the right to existence of a Palestinian people within a Palestinian state.

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