Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Senator Black for organising a powerful meeting yesterday on the subject of six human rights NGOs in Palestine. Those are the Addameer prisoner support and human rights group, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees. All those organisations have now been labelled as terrorists by the Israeli Government.That action has quite rightly been described as a brazen attack on human rights. The designation came into effect on 3 November but was made public only on Sunday. These bodies have a 60-day period to appeal this decision to the Israeli courts. Israel is making declarations on NGOs registered in different states as to whether or not they are terrorist organisations. It was harrowing to hear the fear in the voice of Irish human rights lawyer, Dr. Susan Power, who works for Al-Haq, as she spoke about the expectation of being raided and arrested by Israeli military forces. These NGOs are also fully aware of spyware, which they have found on their phones, and their conversations being hacked and listened to. I have been to the West Bank and I am proud to say I have worked with Addameer, the prisoner support group, which does amazing human rights work. This morning I looked at its website, which tells me that Israel has 500 prisoners under administrative detention. That is a euphemism for locking people up, detention without trial and internment. There are 160 children interned without trial in Israel. I ask the House to just think about that.

It is time we stood up to Israel. Condemnation is not enough. It is outrageous for Israel to label people as terrorists or anti-Semitic just for speaking out against what is happening in occupied Palestine. I am proud to call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, as is my party. I ask the question again: why do we have our seat on the United Nations Security Council if we are not prepared to stand up and speak out about issues such as these? We need to see actions against the apartheid state of Israel. How much longer must we see people being terrorised like these human rights bodies?