Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the 1980s, the Irish people led the way in confronting the South African apartheid regime. We think of the heroic Dunnes Stores workers who refused to handle the South African goods. They took that stand and inspired the rest of the Irish people and the then Government. Ireland led the way internationally in confronting that regime. How can we stand here in 2022 when there is overwhelming evidence of apartheid, as internationally defined in law, taking place in Israel and Palestine? B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which are internationally respected human rights organisations, are rightly being quoted in recent days as trustworthy sources on what is happening with regard to the outrage that is unfolding in Ukraine. We trust those organisations in their accounts of what is happening in Ukraine, and rightly so. However, we allow their findings to be disputed without robust confrontation.

For anybody to seriously suggest that what is happening in Israel and Palestine is not apartheid is shocking to me. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen the apartheid wall in Jerusalem, I was in Ramallah, and I travelled to Hebron and saw what happened there. That city and community were devastated to protect hundreds of illegal settlers. I saw, on the road to Bethlehem and up to Jerusalem, the reality of Israeli apartheid. I met the families who are being forced out of their own homes in Jerusalem. I saw the settler communities that are illegal under the law, defined as a "war crime" under international law and subject to UN resolution after UN resolution. I saw those things with my own eyes. I saw the reality of how the Palestinian people in those cities were treated compared with the illegal settlers. I saw the infrastructure being provided to the illegal settler communities compared to that provided for the ancient Palestinian community in those cities. It is a damning indictment on our country that in the 1980s we led the way by confronting the South African apartheid regime and yet today we cannot even pass legislation that bans illegal settler goods. These settlements are illegal under international law and yet we engage in commerce with those who are responsible for that repugnant situation. We cannot even pass that law in this country. We cannot recognise the Palestinian state. The two-state solution has been intentionally destroyed by the Israeli state. There is no Palestinian state left because it has been destroyed, dismantled and disconnected. The Minister knows that because he has been there. He must change direction. We must go back to our roots when we stood up to South Africa.

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