Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since 2020, when I was first elected, time and time again I have risen to my feet in support of fundamental rights for Palestinians. Today we raise the Palestinian flag above Dáil Éireann. Today we signal our support for a two-state solution. Today we are proud to be Irish. It is a momentous, significant and historic day. Spain and Norway join us in our recognition of the State of Palestine, and we encourage more countries to do the same because how can we ever get to a two-state solution without recognising Palestine as a state?

Every time I have risen to my feet here to discuss Palestine, the death toll there has increased, the destruction of Palestine has increased and the carnage in Palestine has increased, and so has the propaganda from the Israeli Government. I absolutely condemn the Hamas attack on 7 October. The 1,000 Israeli lives that have been lost since then should not have been lost. However, those awful figures, which represent real people and real families, stand in stark contrast to the 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza who have died since then, more than 15,000 of whom were children. Ten thousand more are missing. That is completely disproportionate. It is the Israel Defense Forces, known for their military precision, that are targeting babies and hospitals. The Israel Defense Forces, which have state-of-the-art technologies at their disposal, cannot tell the difference between artillery and aid at their borders. That is not credible. That is not an accident. That is not a mistake. Children are starving to death and humanitarian aid is being purposely blocked before it can get to them, before it can save children's lives. Israel has very clear obligations to provide access to humanitarian aid and it should be held to account on that.

I have been to Palestine. I have seen first-hand how Palestinians are treated by Israel Defense Forces members, and that was before this level of tension, before this level of war. Because of that disdain, the United Nations have been forced to halt all food distributions in Rafah after running out of supplies. We know that families are leaving their homes to travel to so-called safe zones, only to get there and find they are death zones. Israel needs to be held to account on that. That is why I believe that at a European level we need to talk sanctions. Israel is blatantly ignoring the International Court of Justice ruling last Friday. Ireland and Spain have been seeking to convene a meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council for this reason, and I am glad that the Tánaiste secured that agreement yesterday. I really welcome the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach's continued engagement with the European and Arab ministers to co-ordinate support for the Arab peace vision, because diplomacy and negotiations are the only way to end the war in Gaza and to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. I have collaborated with the Tánaiste and his team, Sadaka - the Ireland Palestine Alliance and the Palestinian ambassador, who is here with us today. I have been to the United Nations headquarters to call on fellow international parliamentarians to back humanitarian aid, to back UNRWA, to back justice and to back freedom.

This conflict has upset and horrified so many people here in Ireland. Students from St. Joseph's College, Lucan, visited Leinster House this morning. One of the first questions they asked me was how Ireland is supporting Palestine, and I was proud to be able to say that Ireland is leading on this internationally. Ireland was one of the first countries to call for a ceasefire, to continue to back funding for UNRWA and to support the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice and today the Palestinian flag, flies proudly over Dáil Éireann as we formally recognise the State of Palestine.

Caoimhe Daffy, a sixth-year student from that same school, St. Joseph's, just last week won the Thomas Francis Meagher scholarship for her poem "Dóchas faoinár mBrat", or hope beneath the flag. I will finish by reading a section of the poem in its English translation.

Now the Flag is a symbol of peace.

And there will be hope for the children of Ireland.

And the children of the world

If you were born in Cork, or in Donegal

In Ukraine or in Palestine

When you see the Irish flag flowing

It says, ‘one hundred thousand welcomes’.

See this speech in context