Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister please get real? Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was not a mistake; it was a calculated declaration of war against the Palestinian people, the Arab world and the Muslim population. If the Minister does not see that, then he is living in cloud cuckoo land. Netanyahu is celebrating. He claims that the European Union will eventually accept this and move EU embassies to Jerusalem.

Is the Minister seriously suggesting that the Israeli Government is genuine? I say as much given what it has done since the Oslo Accords to accelerate illegal settlements, carve up Jerusalem and ethnically cleanse thousands of Palestinians from east Jerusalem. It has carved up Hebron, literally sliced Hebron in two, to the point that there are now 600,000 settlers in the West Bank. That is double the number at the time of the Oslo Accords. Does the Minister honestly believe Israel has the slightest interest in peace? Now, the United States has made absolutely clear that it has no interest in peace either.

I have never believed in the two-state solution because it legitimises ethnic cleansing. Whether the Minister believes in the two-state solution, it is now dead because Israel has systematically flouted the Oslo Accords and UN international law. Faced with these facts, at what point will the Minister say that sanctions become justified?

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