Dáil debates

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

Annexation of Palestine: Motion [Private Members]

 

8:15 pm

Photo of Pat BuckleyPat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The EU has given a very clear response to this, otherwise we are giving all the wrong signals. European leaders will, I hope, send a very strong signal to a regime that is repressing its own people, expelling foreign journalists, silencing civil society and human rights defenders. If indecision or weakness is shown by the EU, it will reinforce in the minds of the decision makers in that country that we have done the right thing here. The response must be clear, tough and to happen quickly. There must be an independent international inquiry into what happened. EU leaders must make clear this will not be tolerated.

What is needed now is a specific response. The EU and its institutions have clear options in terms of sanctions but they have to be sanctions that will be noticed and cause concern. The structure is there. This is something that needs a very strong response in terms of sanctions. It cannot be strong words or press releases, there has to be a real edge. These are not my words, they are a reflection of the words of the Minister for Foreign Affairs speaking about Belarus this week.

It is not a point that needs to be overstated that the response to a country that has killed almost 250 people and injured thousands in bombings of civilian areas in just a few weeks requires a much stronger response. That has not come, however, and the EU and its allies fund lsrael either directly or indirectly to carry out the massacre of Palestinians.

Palestinian dispossession through home demolitions and land theft are what brought us to the present moment, which began with an attempt to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah on the basis of a racist and discriminatory law. Only a reality in which Israelis and Palestinians alike enjoy equal rights and dignity will bring quieter times to this region, and that is the reality towards which we must work together. Ceasefire is not enough; we must also advance steps to address the core and underlying problem of occupation and inequality and ensure that Israel does not take unilateral action that would undermine the chances of peace. There must be consequences for violations of international law.

These are not my words, they are those of a former interim President of Israel, Mr. Avraham Burg. I welcome the ceasefire but in the context of the de factoannexation, I call on the Government to say words are not enough and strong action is needed. The Government must support the Sinn Féin motion.

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