Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too raise the Sadaka conference, which it was a privilege for me to attend. It was hosted by Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance. As my colleague, Senator Gavan, said, Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, presented some stark findings from his latest and final report on Palestine. His assessment is damning. He concludes, in agreement with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organisations, that Israel is an apartheid state subjugating the Palestinian people and denying them dignity and the right to self-determination.

Crucial to this assessment is Israel's construction of 300 illegal, Jewish-only settlements in occupied-territory housing for more than 700,000 people. Not only does this expose Palestinians to daily acts of violence from settler extremists, who represent the most radicalised section of Israeli society, but it precludes the formation of any spatially and demographically coherent Palestinian state, which is a key part of the peace process. For the Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid, life is fraught with physical violence and state oppression. Checkpoints are erected in a random and arbitrary fashion, which impedes Palestinians’ movement and leaves them subject to aggressive colonial policing by Israel Defense Forces, IDF, soldiers. Israeli citizens, including settlers in the occupied territories, enjoy the protection of a civil court system, with fair procedures for those accused of a crime; Palestinians are subject to an alternative justice system comprising military tribunals, with a 99% conviction rate.

For the Palestinians living in Gaza, conditions are even worse. Israel restricts the entry of food and the supply of electricity and medicine. The former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, hardly a radical, has described Gaza as an open-air prison. Indeed, it is an open-air prison that is periodically carpet-bombed by the Israeli military in an unjustifiable, disproportionate response to rocket fire from Palestinian militants.I believe they call it "mowing the lawn", and that is in an open-air prison. That is what they are doing. It is half the size of County Louth and what is happening is horrendous.

It is not only Amnesty International but Human Rights Watch and the UN special rapporteur also used the term "apartheid", as did a former Shin Bet director, Ami Ayalon, a former Attorney General of Israel, Michael Ben-Yair, former Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, and, most importantly, people who have lived through and defeated apartheid in South Africa, including, the Nobel laureate, Desmond Tutu, and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor. In diplomacy and international law, language matters. If a Member of the Oireachtas referred to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "skirmish", we would rightly rebuke him or her for failing to capture the gravity and magnitude of the crimes being committed. We cannot be coy about this. I feel frustrated, as the Deputy Leader can imagine, and I ask that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, come in and discuss these findings by Michael Lynk. I am happy to hear that the Minister will be meeting Michael Lynk tomorrow, but I would like it if a representative from Fianna Fáil would also meet him. I call on somebody from Fianna Fáil to have a meeting with Michael Lynk in order to hear about his report.