Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Israel's cruel carpet bombing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza has captured the attention of the world. Israeli forces have killed twice as many Palestinian children in Gaza over the past month than the total number of Palestinian children killed in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967. A total of 4,237 children have been murdered in the past month. It is horrific.

Today I want to speak about what is happening in the West Bank and we must not ignore the increasingly dire situation there. Illegal Israeli settlements have obstructed the freedom of Palestinians to move through the West Bank for decades due to the proliferation of army checkpoints, segregated road systems and the separation wall. What is worse is that settlers have engaged in a co-ordinated campaign of violence against Palestinians. They are often escorted by soldiers as they rampage through Palestinian villages, destroying buildings and olive trees, stealing livestock and agricultural equipment and vandalising water tanks, pipes and solar panels.Settlers have murdered at least a dozen Palestinians in the last month and have arbitrarily detained Palestinians, beaten them, urinated on them and sexually humiliated them in a frenzy of racist colonial brutality.

Entire villages are fleeing because they have received repeated credible threats of being massacred by illegal Israeli settlers. The basis of a future Palestinian state, the stated aim of Irish foreign policy in the region, is being violently eroded before our eyes and the Government refuses to do anything about it. These illegal settlers receive weapons, money, operational support and even legal assistance from Israel. Their aim is to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and that is the reality.

The current Israeli Government includes far-right, settler parties. The Prime Minister's party also claims that Israeli sovereignty extends over all historical Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. This is the most racist and extremist government in Israel's history and is being pandered to by the EU and America. The gross hypocrisy and cowardice of the EU and several powerful member states' responses to Israel's attack on civilians in Gaza has definitely proven that the Government's attempts to convince other member states to respect international law and challenge the occupation of Palestine have failed.

In 2022 the Dáil voted to recognise the de factoannexation of the West Bank by Israel. Illegal Israeli settlements are making life unbearable for the Palestinians. They are one of the largest barriers to a two state solution. We need to render them diplomatically and economically unviable. This means passing the occupied territories Bill. Otherwise, the Government's rhetoric is entirely hollow and useless. I would like to request a further debate on Government policy in this area. I am holding a briefing today at 4 PM in the AV room. I hope all parties will attend. I want to thank Members of Fine Gael for saying that there will be able to attend. I hope Members from Fianna Fáil will be able to attend also.