Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The refusal of the Cabinet to do no more than issue a call for an independent investigation into the dreadful events in Palestine is in reality a call to do nothing. We are all aware of the dreadful mass killings of Palestinian protestors and the Government has rightly repudiated the Israeli Government actions.

The Taoiseach claims that to expel the Israeli ambassador is against the principle and imperative of dialogue but that is not true. Recently, the Government expelled a Russian diplomat, not for any alleged wrongdoing in this State but in solidarity with the British Government. The Taoiseach and the Minister should stop finding excuses for not taking positive action that gives meaningful expression to the rejection by the Irish people of the treatment of the people of Palestine. There is no excuse for the Government not formally recognising the state of Palestine as agreed by the Dáil and the Seanad. If the Irish do not stand by the Palestinians, who will? Who will stand by those people if we do not? If we, as a former colony, still occupied in part by a government we do not want, and with our history of freedom struggle and freedom fighters and our peace process, do not uphold the rights of the Palestinians then who will? Their land is being slowly stolen from them. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live on Palestinian land in violation of UN resolutions. Their water rights are taken. They live in poverty and disadvantage with no rights of movement. The Government’s stance is a cop-out. Sinn Féin is asking the Government to demand that the international community upholds international law.

I visited the Middle East region five times in recent years. I have spoken to Israeli leaders and citizens and Palestinian leaders and citizens. I have been in the Gaza Strip, Gaza city and the West Bank. I have been in the refugee camps and spoken to children released after years in prison. I have spoken to their parents. I walked along the separation wall that cuts Palestinian families off from their lands. Palestinian academics and others have organised a recent series of protests to mark 70 years of Nakba. They took as their example the non-violent campaigns of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. The protests in Gaza were the Palestinian equivalent of the march to Selma, a peaceful mass protest at injustice ignored for 70 years.

The Government’s options are clear. It can talk a lot but do nothing. It can expel the Israeli ambassador. It can stop ignoring the democratic will of the Dáil and recognise the state of Palestine, as it recognised the state of Israel, and stand up for peace in the Middle East by standing by the Palestinians.

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