Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Brady on the Bill. It is quite a modest Bill and is in line with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement across the world to condemn apartheid Israel. The Minister of State and his Government have a chance to send a message not only to apartheid Israel, but to the world. Can he imagine the message going out that an Irish Government has finally taken the stance, through a modest Bill such as this, that there must be economic consequences to apartheid?

Last week, we saw how distorted and racist Israel is. Israel bombed a house in the Gaza Strip last week, killing eight children. When asked by a journalist whether Israel can take responsibility for murdering eight children, the Israel Defense Forces commander said, "We'll look into it." After the murder of eight children, he said, "We'll look into it." What sort of barbarians are these people? What sort of savages are we talking about? After the killing of eight children, he shrugs his shoulders and says, "We'll look into it."

Israel is not a normal state but the Minister of State's Government, successive Governments and governments throughout the European Union keep treating it like a normal state. We can do something. Some of us feel powerless here but we can do something, such as passing Senator Black's Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 and this Bill to send the message to Israel that there are consequences to occupation. By not challenging apartheid, the Minister of State is complicit in it. There has been 75 years of occupation and brutality. There has also been 75 years of silence. More importantly, there has been 75 years of resistance by the Palestinian people against occupation and 75 years of international solidarity that sees the people of Palestine being constantly oppressed by a racist regime.

There have to be economic, political and diplomatic consequences for Israel. It constantly gets away with it. The murder of eight children last week was just one action of the murderous regime in Israel. It will constantly get away with this if the Government does not tell the Israeli ambassador to get the hell out and that we do not want her here because of Israel's constant murder of children. If there are no consequences, a murderous regime like Israel's will constantly do things like this until people stand up. The Palestinian people constantly stand up to Israel. Now it is up to Ireland, the Irish Government and the Irish people, to say that we have had enough of apartheid in Israel. As a country, we need to stand up. Supporting this Bill is one way of sending that message out.

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