Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste said earlier that this announcement was unhelpful electoral rhetoric. I would argue that it is not an election ploy or an off-the-cuff remark. It has been the central policy and goal of the Israeli state since its foundation. It is the inevitable logic of the settler state. This week alone has not been unusual or strange. It has been just another episode in a litany of dispossessions, illegal settlements, routine abuse and the dehumanisation of the Palestinian people. In Beit Jala, a restaurant owned by a Christian Palestinian family was bulldozed by the Israeli military. Some 850 acres were confiscated and then immediately moved onto by illegal settlers. It is a conquest and an ongoing, tortuous genocide of the Palestinian people. I ask the Tánaiste and the Government to commit to action. For example, will the Government cease blocking Senator Frances Black's Bill on the Israeli illegal settlement goods? Will the Tánaiste call in the Israeli ambassador and indicate that, should these settlements and the annexation of the West Bank continue, he will be expelled? The Tánaiste refers to the ambassador as a nice man and somebody he gets on well with. He should call the ambassador in and tell him that he wants to continue to get on well but that we will not tolerate this illegal activity by the Israeli state. It is not new but continuous. It is not an election ploy but a strategic goal of the Israeli state.

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