Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brady for bringing this Bill before the House. It is designed to compel ISIF to divest itself of holdings in companies currently listed on a UN database of businesses operating within the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. In simple terms, the purpose of the Bill is to mandate ISIF to divest itself of all current assets and to prohibit future investments in any companies which operate in the illegal Israeli settlements and which are included on the UN database of companies. The intention is that the Bill will end Ireland's involvement in Israel's illegal enterprises and function as a catalyst for other European countries to follow. By taking the decision to invest Irish taxpayers' money into companies which are on a UN database, the Government through ISIF has made the Irish people stakeholders in the war crime that is the ongoing illegal annexation of Palestinian land. Israeli settlements, their maintenance and expansion are illegal under international law and amount to war crimes. In May 2021 the Dáil unanimously passed a motion condemning the annexation by Israel of East Jerusalem and its settlement activity there and in the West Bank.

Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of Nakba, meaning "catastrophe". Seventy-five years on, Palestinians continue to suffer abhorrent human rights abuses at the hand of the Israeli state. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004. Since the start of 2023, in just over four months, 148 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupying forces including 26 children and six women. On 7 May, the Israeli Government brazenly published tenders for at least 1,248 new units in illegal settlements. Also on 7 May, the occupying forces demolished a European Union-funded school, violating the right to education of the 40 children attending it. It should also be noted that Israel previously demolished the same school in 2017 after which it was later rebuilt. At the moment, 58 schools serving 6,500 Palestinian children are threatened with demolition by occupying forces for lack of permits that are virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain. We come in here every day condemning Russia for what it is doing in Ukraine. If we do not apply the same condemnation of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, we are nothing short of hypocrites.

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