Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to acknowledge the presence of the Palestinian ambassador. Cuirim fáilte romhat. I welcome the Government decision to support this motion. Yesterday the Opposition had occasion to catalogue the Government's faults and failings but the non-partisan position that has been adopted on this issue provides an instance of contrast. In this case, the Government appears to have listened at last to the will of the Irish people and furthermore, it seems prepared to do the right thing. That deserves acknowledgment as does the support of Independent Deputies and those of Fianna Fáil. If we can show unity on this issue, that represents real leadership. Even though some may say the motion is not binding in itself, the level of consensus, nevertheless, represents an historic move that sends a strong message of solidarity to the beleaguered Palestinian people in their time of great need.

Ireland remains in the minority of UN member states that does not yet recognise the state of Palestine. This motion would have Ireland join the global majority of 135 other countries which have already extended this recognition, including the eight EU member states which have done so. For Ireland to sit on the sidelines waiting for an EU common position to emerge is to shame ourselves as a nation. As a people we have our own experience of colonialism and foreign military occupation. Ireland, therefore, has a particular responsibility for human rights leadership on this issue. Let that start in earnest tonight.

I want to emphasise that the PLO and Palestinian National Assembly's 1988 declaration of the independence of the state of Palestinian, based on the pre-1967 borders, was a statement of compromise by the Palestinian leadership, representing a claim to only 22% of the historical territory of Palestine. This most emphatically does not threaten the existence of the state of Israel; neither does it negate the Israeli people's right of self-determination. Rather, it intentionally creates the conditions for a viable two-state solution and peaceful coexistence based on equality. Like other Members, I have received correspondence from the Israeli Embassy urging me not to support this motion, to which I have proudly signed my name. But the Israeli Embassy has got it utterly wrong on the question of self-determination when it states in its letter that, "recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination should be postponed." To be clear, one people cannot veto the self-determination rights of another people - temporarily or otherwise. It does not work that way. The right to self-determination is one of those small handful of norms in international law considered jus cogens, which means it is a peremptory norm, protected by the UN charter but also as a matter of customary international law. In other words, this fundamental human right cannot be conferred or deferred. Interference with the lawful exercise of this right is prohibited and enforcement of the right itself is lawful. In fact, it is the settled law of the UN charter, given expression in UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 on Friendly Relations Among States, that forcible deprivation of the right to self-determination of a people, including by way of foreign occupation or apartheid, activates the right of that people to obtain assistance from the international community in their resistance to same. As significant as our motion is, it is simply an expression of a fulfilment of our international obligations.

It claims that "Ireland as a neutral country, would be intervening in a foreign conflict" by recognising Palestine. On the contrary, such recognition constitutes a peaceful fulfilment of our international obligation either to assist or certainly not to obstruct the Palestinian exercise of the right to self-determination, in a manner fully consistent with international human rights law, international humanitarian law and the UN Charter provisions on the use of force. Will the Minister bring these facts to the attention of the Israeli embassy and foreign ministry when he next has contact with them?

I also had correspondence from 900 prominent Israeli citizens who wholeheartedly endorse this motion and the recognition of Palestinian statehood. These 900 citizens, including former Israeli ministers, diplomats and Nobel peace laureates, have stepped forward at great risk and deserve commendation. So do those other progressive Jews in Israel and the world over, from the Women in Black to Jews Against the Occupation to the military conscientious objectors or sarvanim, including Yesh Gvul and others, whose humanity and commitment to equality and human rights has sustained them in their defiance of the illegal occupation of Palestine and the racist ideology that seeks to appropriate for itself the claim to represent all Jewish people. This is not true, and no one should be fooled into believing this, but nor should we ever be drawn into anti-Semitic commentary. Let me be clear, opposition to Zionist ideology and the racist Zionist state is one thing, but there is no room for anti-Semitism in the campaign for Palestine. I acknowledge that the Jewish campaigners to whom I referred have a crucial contribution to make towards ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the ongoing illegal expansion of settlements contrary to international law.

I recognise and commend the Irish citizen at the head of the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the 2014 Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Professor William Schabas, a naturalised citizen of Jewish descent who lost family in the Holocaust, is also a world-renowned scholar and former director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway. He has come under sustained attack by Zionist campaigners for taking on this role ever since his appointment earlier this year. Like the organised vilification of Professor Richard Falk and Judge Richard Goldstone before him, this has included subjection to a despicable smear campaign intended to impugn his academic integrity and his character as a jurist. I state for the record that we are proud that an Irish citizen of his calibre has been selected to make this important contribution to holding to account those responsible for human rights violations and war crimes in this terrible phase of conflict. We trust that his findings and recommendations will even-handedly expose and criticise perpetrators in the conflict, without fear or favour. Professor Schabas deserves the support of the House.

Over the summer months in the course of the horrific bombardment of Gaza and the human suffering it tolled, many gruesome images of the suffering of the people of Gaza were seen by people in this country and beyond. A particular picture summed up the tragedy of the situation for me. This was of a young Palestinian girl, who I guess was no more than four or five, holding her doll and covering its eyes so it would not have to see the horror of what was around the child. In passing this motion we assert not in abstract terms but in real human terms the rights of this Palestinian girl and every other Palestinian citizen to their freedom, state, dignity and human rights.

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