Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A couple of weeks ago in the Dáil, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said he believed it was not best for Ireland to act unilaterally in support of Palestine against Israeli abuse and terror inflicted on the Palestinians. He said he believed Ireland should work with Europe as a unit to try to deliver a two-state solution. That would all be credible if Ireland influenced other European leaders; unfortunately, we do not. We are takers, not influencers, of European policy. We seem to be passive observers in Europe. Yes, the Government states how serious the situation is, but nothing ever follows through with action. If the Government wants to influence policy, why does it not take action? One course of action would be to approach like-minded countries to publish a collective statement of EU member states denouncing the designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organisations and calling on the Israeli Minister of Defense to rescind the designation. That is not a lot to ask for. What is being done at Union level to protect EU funding of Palestinian human rights NGOs? Three NGOs have had their funding suspended by the EU as a precautionary measure based on the 74-page document of evidence for May that was widely condemned by member states as not substantiated. What is the Government doing to revoke immediately these precautionary measures on Palestinian funding? Where is the action? When will the Government put aside the kind words? People in Europe love us; of course they do because we are not being active, not delivering on change and not taking action. They are happy with us. We need action. We need to support Palestine and we need to make our support clear to the EU.

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