John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When speaking at last month's General Assembly, the Taoiseach acknowledged in his remarks that Israeli settlements are a clear violation of international law, that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is untenable and that the global community cannot become inured to it. At least five Palestinians were killed yesterday and 21 wounded in the occupied West Bank after a wave of Israeli forces entered Nablus. Civilians have described the city as a scene from hell. Last week, a dozen Israeli soldiers raided a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem to arrest a 16-year-old child, Shadi Khoury. The soldiers beat him so badly that there was a trail of blood left outside the family home as they dragged him from it blindfolded and barefoot. He continues to be held without charge. Shadi's classmates held a vigil for him yesterday, calling for his release. As Ms Diana Buttu has observed, the international community seems to have a fiction that there is somehow Israel and also the settlements, as though they were separate one another. In reality, they are one. This week, a committed settler was appointed army chief in the occupied West Bank, which will serve only to underpin the long-voiced concerns about collaboration between the Israeli army and settlers in attacks against Palestinians. The normal rhetoric and controlled condemnation of this has to stop. There has to be robust action to hold Israel to account. What is the Government going to do to support and champion the occupied territories Bill?

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