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

I want to ask the Taoiseach about another aspect of British politics which we heard echoed today on "Morning Ireland", when a contributor echoed a position of Theresa May's about which we should have something to say. We had a journalist making a casual connection between support for Palestinians, criticism of the Israeli state and anti-Semitism, essentially suggesting they were all the same thing. This has been an extremely worrying narrative that Theresa May has echoed in attacking Jeremy Corbyn. They are attacking what they describe as the hard left and accusing them, incredibly, of being anti-Semitic because they support Palestinians and are critical of the apartheid policies of Israel. We all abhor anti-Semitism and should oppose it in the most robust fashion. However, it is absolutely unacceptable that an Orwellian narrative is now spreading across Britain. It had better not spread over here; it needs to be resisted. It suggests that legitimate criticism of apartheid policies in Israel and of the persecution of Palestinians by the Israeli state somehow equates to anti-Semitism. Opposing apartheid policies and racism should actually lead us to be critical of what Israel is doing, not to be silent about what Israel is doing. Precisely because we oppose racism and abhor the suffering of Jewish people in the past, it is absolutely important to criticise what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.

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