Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is okay because Senator Gavan has put it better than I possibly could. The time of Operation Protective Edge was the first time we really saw the indiscriminate targeting of innocent civilians played out in real time on social media. Following that, in 2014, I had the opportunity to travel to Palestine. What I saw with my own eyes I recognise in the Amnesty International report. I did not get into Gaza, but, as a European delegation, we travelled around Palestine. What we saw is corroborated in the Amnesty International report. We saw vital medical supplies being withheld. In Hebron, we saw little children being stopped and searched on their way to school, their bags being turned upside down. We saw Palestinian market sellers who had to put canopies over their stalls because, if they did not, the residents above would throw human excrement down on their supplies. We saw the wall and the separate bus transport systems. No matter how many times people relay what the Israeli Government is facilitating and perpetrating against the Palestinians, it seems the reaction is always to deny it and make the false accusation of antisemitism.

Amnesty International is just the latest reputable witness to the Israeli Government's apartheid regime. I commend it on its report and the detail within on Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian people. Headings cover apartheid in international law; the intent to oppress and dominate Palestinians; territorial fragmentation and legal segregation; legal segregation and control; the use of military control to control and dispossess; the denial of nationality, residency and family life; the disruption of family life; the restriction of movement; the restriction of the right to political participation; the dispossession of land and property; discriminatory zoning and planning policies; the suppression of Palestinians' human development; a system of apartheid; crimes against humanity; administrative detention, torture and other ill-treatment; unlawful killings and serious injuries; and the denial of basic rights and freedoms, and persecution. That is the apartheid straitjacket that is daily life for nearly 5 million Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Irish Government and the EU must end their appeasement policy on Israel. There is a price to be paid to be respected and accepted as a democratic state. At the moment, Israel is a rogue state at war with all the Palestinian people. It has to end its war and the apartheid system before it is accepted and respected. As Senator Gavan asked, if using the word "apartheid" is not helpful, to whom is it not helpful? Having read the Amnesty International report and all the reports that came before it, there is no denying that Israel is an apartheid state. The Irish Government needs to stand up against it.