Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator Black on introducing this historic Bill to the national Parliament of Ireland. It is a great Bill, although the economic impact it would have on the state of Israel would be limited. It is highly significant for the rest of the world and, of course, the Palestinian people. The world is watching and we hope the contagion of boycotting the state of Israel is just beginning. People Before Profit would like to go further and have a complete boycott of all Israeli goods entering the European Union, including Ireland, and see the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from this country.

The House has a moral obligation to pass the Bill. The Minister's statements are complete drivel, an issue to which I will return. We need to send a signal to apartheid Israel that its policy of murder and occupation can no longer go unhindered under international law. There have to be economic consequences. We can hide behind the legal jargon and protocols of the Dáil, while the European Union cries crocodile tears on a consistent basis, but the trade in goods between Israel and the Union is worth €35 billion. On a daily basis, ordinary Palestinians are murdered and imprisoned for no reason. Therefore, it is a matter of taking sides. It is a matter of being on the side of the occupied rather than the occupier, the side of the Palestinian rather than the illegal settler and the side of justice, not injustice.

There is a precedent. In 1987 in this House Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to ban the importation of fruit from apartheid South Africa. That sent a signal across the world that a small country had stood up for justice and against the atrocities of apartheid. Nobody in his or her right mind, regardless of political persuasion, would try to defend apartheid South Africa. In 1990 Nelson Mandela came to this country to receive the freedom of Dublin. On the Dunnes Stores strike from 1984 to 1987, he said "ordinary people, far away from the crucible of apartheid, cared for our freedom." He said the strike had kept him going through the darkest days of his imprisonment. That is what this Bill is about. Thousands of people have been killed in the past four or five years by the Israeli forces, but the Bill is giving the Palestinians hope in the darkness of occupation. We must pass it and not hide behind the bureaucracy and jargon of EU law. Public opinion favours the majority in this House. The Minister is on the wrong side of history and public opinion in Ireland.

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