Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion and call for an end to the repression in Belarus. Hijacking and piracy have no place in today's society regardless of who may be on board or their political persuasion. This was an Irish-operated flight with innocent passengers and flight staff on board. The grounding of this plane by this repressive regime is wrong and caused great fear, endangering innocent passengers and staff alike.

The attacks on those who oppose this anti-democratic regime must end and those who carry out these attacks on their behalf must be held accountable. There has been international condemnation of these actions from the United States and the EU, which is right and proper, but we also need to acknowledge the selective non-condemnation of similar events. For instance, in 2013, a French plane with the Bolivian president Evo Morales was grounded on the suspicion that the US National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden, was on board. On that occasion there was not a peep of condemnation. Unfortunately, many of those who contributed here have also engaged in selective condemnation of such incidents.

The EU must be seen to act fairly in its sanction and breaches of international law. To be clear, I commend those who have called for sanctions to be imposed on Belarus for this air hijacking. All countries which break international laws should be brought to task for their actions. Again, I note the total lack of calls for sanctions on Israel and the Israel Defense Force for its onslaught on innocent civilians, Palestinian men, women and children, with indiscriminate bomb attacks and a displacement of Palestinian families who have lived in their homes for many, many generations.

Let me echo the call for the EU to impose the strongest measures available as soon as possible, but also to impose the same sanctions on all those who break international law, including in the last number of weeks and in previous years in respect of the attacks on Palestine by Israel, which have been acknowledged as major breaches of international for decades. It is critical that the international community sends the message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated by any country and it is of the utmost importance that the Government uses its place on the UN Security Council and within the EU to make it abundantly clear that Ireland condemns these actions and all actions against international law in the most robust terms.

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