Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said the matter was not on the agenda simply because it was not but, as Israel made this decision before the Council met, surely it would have come up at some point, even as a postscript. I was not, in any way, going against the Malmö declaration. I am very familiar with it. I put the matter in context, saying it is outside the area of trade relations. This decision was made on 19 October. While I have the time, I will tell the Minister of State what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said. She said the designation of the organisations was "an attack on human rights defenders, on freedoms of association, opinion and expression and on the right to public participation, and should be immediately revoked". Surely that should have been enough to include the matter as a postscript to the post-Council meeting conclusions. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called the move appalling and unjust and "an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organisations". On 25 October, leading Israeli human rights groups issued a joint statement calling this a "draconian measure that criminalises critical human rights work".

On 25 October, UN special rapporteurs, including Fionnuala Ní Aoláin from Galway and Mary Lawlor, unequivocally condemned the decision declaring the designation - I ask the Minister of State to please listen to this because, if we do not have a view on this, we might as well throw our hat at it - "a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere". They also stated it is "not what a democracy adhering to well-accepted human rights and humanitarian standards would do" and that "The misuse of counter-terrorism measures in this way by the government of Israel undermines the security of all". It undermines the security of all but did not merit half a sentence in the conclusions of the Council's meeting. I recognise what the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has done but we need more than concerns. We need to say this is wrong and ask Israel to revoke this decision.

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