Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe in the right of the state of Israel to exist. I believe that Resolution 242 of the United Nations represents the correct position in international law as regards the boundaries of the state of Israel. I regard the creeping annexation of the West Bank territories as illegal and manifestly illegal. I regard the establishment of settlements on Palestinian land as wholly contrary to international law. I support all of those people, many of whom are of the Jewish race themselves, who oppose the constant and apparently insatiable appetite of extreme Zionists in Israel to annex land that is not theirs under international law.

Regarding the Irish Government, the occupied territories Bill that was effectively sabotaged by the Government in this House was a shameful example of Ireland not living up to matching its words with deeds. I put this challenge to the Minister of State and he can bring it back to the Tánaiste. Taking into account everything that has been mentioned here, such as the realpolitik and the fact that some of our allies are in a pro-Israeli frame of mind and stance, if the Government is in any way serious about this, surely, at European Union level, Ireland should publicly state that any further settlements in Palestinian territory will be visited by EU sanctions. That should be in our position. It stops now. I am not asking for people to be bulldozed out of places they are already in at the moment as a matter of EU policy. If the Government really is serious - I do not believe it is; I believe that Iveagh House is weak-kneed and jelly-legged on this issue – about anything it states in relation to these matters, it should put forward at the European Union a policy that any further settlement activity will lead to sanctions and publicly state it is doing so. If the Government cannot say that, it is an ally of the annexation groups in Israel. The Government is undermining international law if it cannot make it clear to Benjamin Netanyahu and his regime that if they do any more of this, there would be adverse consequences and not just adverse words or tut-tutting at EU conferences. If the Government cannot get that message across to them, it is, in fact, colluding with them. We all know what their agenda is.

It is exactly the same as applied to Putin and the Donbas. People had to say “No” to him. People had to eventually tell him there are consequences to what he is doing. When they did not do that, he advanced, and when they did do that, he has been checked.

I say to the Government: get off the fence. Stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people. I stand up for the rights of the Israelis not to be terrorised, bombed and all the rest of it. I have no difficulty in identifying with those propositions. However, if the Irish Government cannot at EU level propose to all the other EU states that any further settlement activity will carry with it EU sanctions against Israel, we might as well give up talking about two-state solutions, which are slowly being frittered away. We might as well stop pretending that we have any function in international relations except making bleating noises from the margins. It is a simple solution. Say to our European partners – they do not have to agree with us but at least we could say that this is our position – “We support sanctions if there is any further settlement activity and we are proposing to the European Union that it should follow that policy.” What is wrong with that? What is so difficult about that? I will tell you what it so difficult about that. We do not have the courage to say it.