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

My colleague, Deputy Brady, made a presentation to the European Parliament standing Delegation for relations with Palestine last week to brief parliamentarians from across the EU on the Dáil motion on the annexation of Palestinian lands by Israel. Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory also attended. Ireland is recognised for the role it played in the anti-apartheid campaign during the 1980s. There is urgent need for a similar campaign now in response to Israel's apartheid policies. The Human Rights Watch report, A Threshold Crossed, starkly documents how Israeli authorities methodically privilege Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. It states: "Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy." Palestinians are dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated and subjugated by virtue of their identity, all of which amounts to crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. The Taoiseach has stated on a number of occasions that the occupied territories Bill banning trade with illegal settlements in the occupied territories is not compatible with European law; others disagree. Will the Taoiseach provide the Government's legal advice or at least commit to providing the points of European law which he has been advised are incompatible with the legislation?

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