Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Taoiseach will be aware, today, we mark Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the day on which the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 71 years ago. Last week, my colleague, Deputy McDonald, raised with the Taoiseach the routine detention and prosecution of Palestinian children as young as 12 in the Israeli military court system. We know that child detainees have been blindfolded and deprived of sleep, had their hands and feet restrained and have been intimidated and assaulted at the hands of the Israeli military. In his reply, the Taoiseach stated he has not had any engagement with the Israeli Government or Israeli politicians. Was this continued violation of human rights raised by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on behalf of the Government when he met the Israeli Prime Minister last week?

It also appears that the Tánaiste did not raise Ireland's opposition to Israel's illegal settlements in occupied Palestine, which are inconsistent with international law. It appears, from media reports, that the Tánaiste instead reassured the Israeli Prime Minister that the Government will not support the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill that would make trade with illegal settlements a criminal offence in Ireland.

Deputy Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach last week if the Government would call on the EU to take action against settlements by imposing meaningful sanctions. The rationale offered up for not doing so was that such a call could not secure the required unanimity to be enforced, yet the Taoiseach has a mechanism for Ireland to impose its own sanctions against Israel's continued flouting of international law through the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill and he has set his face against it.

Water pollution is not the leading cause of child mortality in Gaza, as the Tánaiste stated last week. The continued barbarism of occupation and the ghettoisation of Gaza is what is killing Palestinian children and their families.

The State increase in investment for Palestine, announced last week, is welcome but the Taoiseach knows as well as I do that it falls far short of what is needed both in monetary and political terms. Will the Taoiseach reconsider his opposition to the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill and, by so doing, join with others in this Dáil to uphold the rule of binding international law?

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