Seanad debates

Monday, 17 May 2021

Situation in Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Fiona O'LoughlinFiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here to listen to our arguments, which basically are all the same, namely, we want peace and we want sanctions imposed on Israel. I listened carefully to what the Minister said. While I do not doubt the sincerity of his words for one moment, I was concerned to hear him say that the UN Security Council was unable to issue a clear statement regarding the conflict, not even in terms of calling for a ceasefire. What are we about and what is the UN Security Council about if it cannot even do that?

Many years ago in the late 1980s, I spent a number of months in Israel working on a kibbutz located between Ashkelon and the Gaza Strip. It was about six miles form the Gaza Strip. A number of Palestinians worked in the kibbutz I was based in. I worked closely with them. We worked in a pardes, which is a citrus fruit orchard, and we became very solid friends. I spent many afternoons and evenings in their homes, playing with their children, listening to their stories and speaking about Northern Ireland. They were incredibly informed about the conflict in Northern Ireland and they likened it to the situation that was happening - and continues to happen - in Palestine and Israel. I remember all the contradictions at the time. I could not understand being in Bethlehem in the West Bank on Christmas Eve - when people were celebrating Christianity and being Christian to one another - seeing all the snipers on the roofs with their guns and then speaking to people from that land who were not allowed into Manger Square in their own space. I remember being at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the people I was with were not allowed to go to the Wailing Wall because of cultural differences. I also remember in 1990s when the breakthrough agreement came, which was negotiated by the leaders in Oslo, and the real hope that there was that we were finally on a mutually negotiated pathway to peace. While there was initial promise and progress, that dissipated.

I do not know if any of those present have read Colum McCann's book Apeirogon.I read it a number of months ago. The word "apeirogon" means "many different sides to every story". It was a word he came across when he was writing about Northern Ireland and George Mitchell. He wrote this incredible book having gone to Palestine and Israel where he had the opportunity to speak to two dads, Rami and Bassam. One was Palestinian and the other Israeli, and they were united in grief over the loss of their daughters. They felt that if they started telling their story, the world would listen. He documented, in the most incredible way, their story of loss, heartbreak and grief and tried to unite their story in such a way that people could perhaps learn from their loss. They weaponised, to a certain extent, the force of their grief to tell the world about the loss of their two daughters, Smadar and Abir.

In less than a week, 60 more fathers have lost their Smadars and Abirs, with that weight of grief and loss. Today, we heard about 50 airstrikes. We know four hospitals and 60 schools have been destroyed, aside from the press buildings and journalists who lost their lives. Many of us have heard the stories emerging over the past few weeks on social media. The most recent and notable is the video of a young Palestinian boy running through a crowd of war-torn men screaming for his father. When he got the front of the crowd we saw the funeral procession was for his father. The pain and sorrow the boy emoted forced every global citizen in the world to look at and live through that excruciating experience with him. We learned that the young boy was killed the following day.

We need to send a very clear and united message that the cycle of violence and bloodshed needs to end now and we need to show huge solidarity. I commend Senator Black on all of the work she continues to do on this.

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