Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The killing of civilians in Israel by Hamas was unjustifiable and was rightly condemned. In the brief time I have, I will focus on my real-life lived experience in Palestine last year. This time last year I spent some time in the West Bank. We could not go to Gaza as Israel imposed a ban on visiting the area. I witnessed at first hand the apartheid regime that Israel imposes on the Palestinian people. Freedom of movement is denied. Palestinians have to go through Israeli armed checkpoints just to go from A to B. They have to use road networks that are separate from Israelis. Our Palestinian bus driver was forcibly removed from the bus simply for being Palestinian and was questioned and searched by the Israeli army. Our bus was boarded and we Irish citizens were verbally abused. When I interjected, a gun was put to my face and members of the Israeli army shouted at me, "There is no Palestine. There is no Palestine".

I met with officials, like the Tánaiste, from the Palestinian ministry of education, who informed me of the Israeli tactic of removing and interning pupils and teachers alike, simply to disrupt their education. Israel's policy is to disrupt a child's education as it sees an educated population as a dangerous population. I visited refugee camps where I heard about the murder of Palestinian children.

I heard about Israel's use of skunk water on Palestinian homes, a substance so noxious that Palestinians have to leave their homes. I met a beautiful young boy who was making art on the side of a road from the only material in abundance there, and it was discarded and unused tear gas canisters that had been used by the Israeli army. He gave me this dove of peace. If the Tánaiste was to look closer at the dove - he will not see it from there but I can show it to him - he would see a target over the dove's heart. Even during times that Palestinians seek peace, they see themselves as targets. That is simply not good enough. I know my comrades will get in here in time. We must stand by the Palestinian people at this time and call for a ceasefire.

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