John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On 3 July the Israeli military began its largest and most violent raid on the heavily-populated Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in over 20 years. Its forces came with tanks, planes, missiles and killer drones. They killed at least a dozen people, displaced thousands and, according to the deputy governor of Jenin, they destroyed, burned or damaged at least 80% of homes in the refugee camp. These forces came in the name of the Israeli Government, which is a government committed to the expansion of its programme of colonisation of Palestinian territories through a campaign of terror, discrimination, intimidation and apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. It is a far-right government intent on fragmenting Palestinian territory and displacing Palestinians to the degree the concept of a Palestinian state can no longer exist as a political objective within a two-state solution. The Israeli Government is intent on reducing the Palestinian people to a disparate entity clinging to existence in a series of Bantustans.

I have no doubt we will hear unanimity across the House on the condemnation of the actions of the Israeli military in the service of the Israeli state. There will be strong words, noble words and words that will attempt to express the horror of all who have witnessed the latest round of Israeli terror. Then the Government will seek to move on, but this simply cannot be allowed to happen again. Israel is an apartheid state guilty of war crimes and breaking international law. It is, in effect, a rogue state and must be called out for what it is. Despite this, the Government has done nothing to defend the human rights of Palestinians or to even attempt to hold Israel to account for its crimes, war crimes and contempt for human rights and international law. Worse than inaction is the appeasement policy of this Government. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has admitted the Government is looking to hire a business development consultant in Israeli. Fathom that. This rogue state is a breaker of international law and we are seeking to appoint a business development consultant there.

This is all taking place alongside the shameful and disingenuous actions of this Government in its attempts to delay the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill, which was introduced to the House on First Stage in March and moved to Second Stage in May. To remind the Tánaiste and the Government, that Bill is designed to end a shameful practice by which the Tánaiste’s Government, in contravention of international law, allows the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, to take money raised from the taxpayer and invest it on behalf of the State in a series of business entities operating in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. That Bill would compel the ISIF to divest itself, and thereby taxpayers’ money, from holdings in nine businesses that were in the UN database of 112 companies operating in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

Instead of supporting a logical, simple Bill to end the practice of using taxpayers’ money to prop up businesses profiteering on the back of international war crimes and the breaching of international law, the Government has deployed spurious rationales to justify its failures to initiate any actions in defence of the Palestinian people. In this instance, the Government has opted to kick the Bill down the road for nine months to allow a review of the legislation to take place because it did not view the database as a live document. It argued the database was not going to be updated and was not capable of being updated. Shamefully, it has adopted the same language and arguments as the oppressor, which in this instance is of course Israel. Since then, continuing engagement and dialogue between the UN and business entities that were on that list have led to the removal of 15 business enterprises from that same database as they no longer have involvement in the business activities listed in our Bill, or were in the process of ceasing their involvement. It is, therefore, a live, evolving and changing document, so the very argument the Government used to stop this Bill moving forward has been completely undermined. Of the 15 business entities removed from the database, only one, General Mills, was on the original list of business entities the ISIF had invested in. That leaves eight businesses on the list. Those businesses are actively operating in the occupied territories and we, as Irish taxpayers, are invested in them through this Government and through the ISIF.

If the rhetoric is to mean anything here, it must be matched by action. The Tánaiste and his Government cannot continue to hide behind the same fig leaf they have hidden behind on the advancement of the occupied territories Bill, because commencement and forward motion on the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill is in their hands and their hands only. If the Tánaiste’s rhetoric of condemnation is to mean anything it must be followed by action. Words of condemnation are great. The Tánaiste must take great pride in his Government coming out time and again condemning, and rightly so, the illegal actions of Israel. However, if that rhetoric is to mean anything, there are three simple but critical things the Government must do. First, it must officially recognise the state of Palestine. Second, it must immediately divest from the businesses operating in the illegal settlements, which are making us complicit in the war crimes taking place. Third, it must move forward with the occupied territories Bill.

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