Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

When I refer to murderous military aggression, illegal occupation, destruction of homes and key infrastructure, crimes against humanity and war crimes, what country am I talking about? Is it Palestine or Ukraine? Of course, the answer is that it is both. This Government is more than willing to do something to condemn and take actions to deal with illegal occupation, murderous unjustified military violence, destruction of infrastructure and homes and the killing of civilians when it comes to one of those places, but is willing to do absolutely nothing when it comes to them being done in another one of those places, namely, Palestine.

I find that, frankly, nauseating. The latest example of it is a letter from a constituent I got. I will not identify the person. Her son was born in Ireland and is an Irish citizen, while his father is Palestinian. The child’s father cannot leave Palestine and be with the child’s mother and his son. The son has an Irish passport and was born in Ireland but also has Palestinian identity. When he goes to Israel, his Irish passport is not accepted. That is apartheid. He is an Irish EU citizen but Israel does not care. It held him and his mother, a mother of an Irish child with a Palestinian passport, for hours, subjecting both to humiliating interrogation and so on. Israel does not recognise the Irish passport of the child. When he reaches the age of 16, he will never be allowed to Jerusalem, where his family lives, and will not be allowed into Ben Gurion Airport or to travel anywhere outside specified areas in the West Bank.

That child’s cousin who lives in Jerusalem was recently picked up by the Israelis on Israeli nationalist flag day on Jaffa Street, where and a dozen other children were just gathering on the street and doing nothing. He was arrested and taken to the police station where he was blindfolded and his hands and feet bound tightly with metal cuffs. He was then brought to an area of the station with no cameras and beaten all over his body by six heavily armed soldiers. They beat him with their fists and M16 rifles on his hand and back in an area where there were no cameras, knowing that he could not defend himself. After that, he was put in a windowless cell for six days, where he was not allowed to contact his parents or a lawyer. His mother had no idea where he was. He asked for a blanket because he was so cold but he was denied it. Another child prisoner from Nablus lent him one to keep him warm. On the last day, he was due to attend court and the television was turned on in his cell. On it were videos and images of other Palestinian detainees screaming and being tortured. This was a deliberate psychological tactic to traumatise the young men. He was then taken to court. When he looked at his parents who were in the court he was beaten again for doing so. I could go on but I do not have time.

The father of the Irish-born EU citizen is also Palestinian.

This is what happened to him when he was arrested and interrogated by the police when he was 16 years old:

The interrogation was one of the most difficult times in my life. The Israeli interrogators tortured me and it affected my education because it affected my mind and my psychological state. It was a really bad time. I was tied to a small chair. I fainted ... they put their fingers on my neck as if to strangle me. I think they studied [the art of] how to hurt someone until they [thought they] are almost going to die. They hit me in my private area with their legs and batons. They did it slowly and then finished with a big kick. [...] They put pencils between my fingers and squeezed them tight. They threatened to rape my Mom and sister.

I could go on. That is how the father of a Palestinian-Irish boy who is an Irish citizen and was born in Ireland was treated. That is how his nephew was treated. All those Israelis can come here without a visa but Palestinian families cannot even meet their own family members and this is what they have to put up with. There are 1,200 children in Israeli prisons but the Government does nothing. How are we honestly expected to believe that the Government or the European Union really care about brutal and unjustified aggression against innocent people when they allow this to happen?

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