Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

I commend Sinn Féin on its motion this evening. I fully support it. I will take the opportunity to say a few words about the occupied territories Bill and the remarkable journey this legislation has been on since 2018. It simply will not go away and this is in large part due to the incredible determination and forbearance of Senator Frances Black and her colleague Conor O'Neill. Whether the occupied territories Bill remains obstructed by Government under the guise of legal complexities and constraints or whether the Government waters it down into some new pale iteration, Senator Black has managed to unify politicians from across the political spectrum, from Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett to Senator Michael McDowell, behind this campaign. In an era when politics is so polarised and when the left side of that spectrum has been fragmented for years, this is an outstanding achievement in moral and political leadership.

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The momentum of this campaign will continue until the legislation is passed and it will lead to more comprehensive boycotts of Israel.

We are six years on from the cynical obstruction of this Bill by Fine Gael through the money message technicality, to different stages of cynicism and dishonesty and political expediency since, which saw Fianna Fáil going from being champions of the Bill, introducing it to the Dáil in 2019, to turning its back on the Bill a year later under diplomatic pressure from America and Israel.

The Bill would be modest in its impact. In the words of Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, it would be a minimal act of concordance with international law. We know it would be momentous in being the first sanction of any kind imposed by a western country on trade with the illegal Israeli settlements. There is reason to believe it would set off a chain reaction of similar measures taken by other countries. By obstructing the passage of the occupied territories Bill into law, the Government has undermined our own democratic processes. This has happened at the same time as it warns, rightly, about Russian interference in European democracies.

We all know this Bill is legally sound. It has been deemed as such by a range of international experts and the aforementioned former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Senator Michael McDowell. We know it was a charade to seek fresh legal advice in the lead-up the election on foot of enormous pressure from the public, and that pressure has risen again in the context of Gaza’s descent into hell. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, that all will be forgiven if he does the right thing this time around and allows the Bill to progress, and for it to include services as well as goods. The Minister will outrage the Israeli Government either way so we may as well make this Bill substantive. If the Minister leads us down the garden path again, he will not be forgiven, either by the Irish people or by history. We understand the fears that come with passing this legislation. We appreciate the intensity of lobbying and the threats the Government is subject to, but we need to find our common humanity and assert our basic values in the face of a great evil being done to a trapped, terrorised and dispossessed people.

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