Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Fillfidh mé ar cheist na Palaistíne. Cuirim fáilte roimh chinneadh an Rialtais aitheantas a thabhairt don Stát mar stát neamhspleách. Is céim chun cinn é sin ach tá gá le briathra eile agus le réimse leathan gníomhartha a dhéanamh anois chun beart a dhéanamh de réir ár mbriathar.

I am returning to Palestine. It is difficult to talk, actually with the images on our television screens night after night. It is clear that Israel is out of control. The government and the army is out of control and they are acting with impunity. I welcome the Taoiseach’s very good decision. It is a proud day for Ireland and today the Palestinian flag is raised. I welcome that but it has taken too long. It has taken the deaths of 36,500 people, the vast majority women and children. It has taken their deaths – and there have been more deaths today – for us to do the most basic thing that we have promised for years: to recognise the State of Palestine. In recognising that state, we must then decide what steps we will take to give meaning to that because we need to give meaning to that decision. We have taken that decision, and I am praising the Taoiseach for it, but it was taken following the protests on the ground over and over.

There is a sense of outrage and upset. On any given day, Deputies in this Dáil were receiving up to 10,000 emails telling us to do something to act. While we have acted to a certain extent now, through recognition, I would like for the Taoiseach today, either in response to me or later, to outline what precise steps he will take to make that meaningful.

The most meaningful number of steps are: to stop the troops and the arms from going through Shannon Airport; to enact the occupied territories Bill; to stop trading with Israel; to have sanctions against Israel; and to recognise that it is completely out of control. We need to reflect on why it has taken us this long because we are also part of the bloodshed that is happening in Palestine. This is in our name because we have refused to act following various reports and decisions.

Amnesty International told us quite some time ago that the system is apartheid, and Israel was running an apartheid regime. We ignored it when six human rights organisations were classified as “terrorist”. We ignored many other things, including the fact that as far back as 2015 the International Criminal Court, ICC, started a preliminary investigation into crimes that Israel was committing. From 2015, slowly and methodically, the chief prosecutor built up a case to the point at which she opened a formal investigation. Her successor is now following up on that by issuing arrest warrants. Can you imagine? Arrest warrants have been issued for the Prime Minister of Israel, his defence minister and the three leaders of Hamas. That has followed years of slowly and methodically building up a case, while we did nothing. We did absolutely nothing other than say words. In fact, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, told us we were very good on rhetoric and not on action. In the month-----

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