Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the fact the Government, in particular, has said it is difficult to make any other conclusion other than that the exclusion of these persons contributes to efforts to suppress scrutiny and criticism of Israeli policies in the West Bank. That is completely accurate and is, unfortunately, precisely what is happening. Will the Minister of State give us a timeframe in which we expect can a response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry? We expect an explanation, and if we do not get an adequate explanation at that stage, we need to have a response to that, be it public statements or discussions with the Israeli ambassador in Ireland.

I again welcome the fact the Government does not accept the proposition that advocacy as boycott is equivalent to support for violence. That is very important in a context where, globally, including in France and other countries, there is an attempt to criminalise the expression of support for BDS. Representatives of the Bank of Ireland came before the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach today. The bank shut down the accounts of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, one of a number of actions taken by banks around the world, it is to be presumed under pressure.

I also welcome that the Government cannot accept mere attendance at legitimate non-violent protest by Palestinians as a reasonable ground on which to exclude someone. I refer to a statement from Stephen McCloskey, one of those who was deported. He said he was denied entry because he had participated in a protest in Bi’lin, a small village west of Ramallah, a year ago. Bi’lin has resisted the construction of Israel's illegal separation barrier, better known as an apartheid wall, on the land there for 12 years. Irish activists, Mr. McCloskey included, joined the villagers in their weekly non-violent protest against the construction of the wall which the International Court of Justice deemed to be illegal in 2004. In opposing the wall, Irish activists were upholding the law. By deporting him and three other Irish citizens, all of whom were non-violent activists, Israel denied them the right to travel and freedom of expression, just as it does to Palestinians every day. It was breaking the law.

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