Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Israel is, of course, a serial violator of international law. It is currently in violation of 28 separate UN resolutions. It is a force of occupation and operates a system of apartheid. The world looks on in horror at the bombardment of the Palestinian people and the barbaric violation of their basic human rights by the state of Israel. The aggressive Israeli military onslaught on Gaza has continued for weeks now. The vicious attacks on the Palestinians in the West Bank and terrifying pogroms that have driven Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem by illegal settlers continue and are facilitated by the so-called forces of law and order of the Israeli state. Gaza has been turned into an open-air prison by Israel’s blockade, a siege has been going on for 14 years. Israel has yet again unleashed the weight of its military might on Gaza and warns Palestinians to get out when the truth is there is nowhere for them to go. Missiles rain down from the sky and they are left as trapped refugees. One of the most sophisticated military forces in the world smashes down on beleaguered, impoverished people with devastating consequences on refugee people who have been rendered homeless and stateless. They are a people dispossessed and yet the perpetrators go unchallenged. To suggest that there are two sides to this story is utterly perverse. To suggest that Israel is simply defending itself is an obscenity and shame on anyone, any so-called world leader, wherever they are, if they repeat such an obscenity.

The truth is that the international community has seen what has happened to the Palestinian people in full view and have stepped back and allowed it to happen. To the UN Security Council and the entire apparatus of the international community, let me say that we see you. Your people see you. The great and the good of the international community find it acceptable to step back and make an argument of "on the one hand this and on the other hand that" and meanwhile Palestinian refugee children die. Make no mistake that is not an acceptable position to the people of the world. I feel confident that global citizens are appalled, repulsed and enraged, quite frankly, that we are here again and Palestine suffers.

We need a cessation of violence and that needs to happen immediately. We need a full-scale humanitarian effort. Above all else, let us be clear that we need justice and the rule of law to prevail. We need Palestinian self-determination. We need the state of Israel to be finally called out for what it is: a racist, apartheid regime. We in Ireland, perhaps more than any other people, have a special obligation to act on all of this because we know the colonial experience, the experience of dispossession and division. We know what it is to be left destitute. We have no excuse not to act.

I ask the Minister and the Government when we will recognise the state of Palestine, as was agreed in this Parliament years ago? When will we see the occupied territories legislation advanced? When will we finally insist loudly, clearly and consistently that the law be respected and that Palestinian lives matter?

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