Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I noted to the President of the European Parliament earlier this month, one of the necessary ingredients to create change in the world is to speak honestly with our friends. I believe this honesty is needed now more than ever from the EU and the international community in its engagements with Israel, as Israel heaps injustice after injustice on the Palestinian people.

Political leaders have, I believe, a responsibility to name Israel's aggression for what it is - an apartheid regime. Equivocation on calling out this violent system of apartheid is failing everyone as Israel's new administration lurches even further to the right.

In a television address, President Herzog warned at the weekend that Israel is on the brink of constitutional and social collapse as the ultra-right coalition sets its sights on the judiciary. Earlier that same day, the prime minister told a meeting of his government that he wants to strengthen illegal settlements and the security cabinet announced its plans to authorise nine illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Netanyahu's so-called reforms of the judiciary will significantly interfere in the courts' ability to overrule a cabinet decision that seeks to so brazenly break the law. These are not the actions of a democratic state.

It remains my firm view that Government must introduce and support the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018. This is now a matter of urgency.

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