Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday morning I woke up to the devastating news of what is happening again in Gaza. Innocent people are being murdered. Men, women and children are being blown to bits again by Netanyahu and his army. These are people who are already starving and have no healthcare. Some of the videos are absolutely harrowing, devastating and outrageous. The world is watching. We are all standing here saying "Oh my goodness, isn't it terrible and isn't it awful?" My god, nobody is doing anything. There are absolutely no consequences for the ethnic cleansing in both Gaza and the West Bank. We see an apartheid regime in the West Bank and illegal settlements growing on a daily basis, where Israel is breaking international law. How many times have I said this? No action has been taken. We are only asking for one small thing, namely, to pass the occupied territories Bill. It is not even that big a deal; it is about banning goods from the illegal settlements. That is the only consequence we have and yet nothing has been done.

Today, I also raise the worrying inclusion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA, definition of anti-Semitism in the programme for Government. I highlight the 5,000 signatures on the Uplift petition calling for its immediate removal. We should all be deeply concerned by the worrying growth of antisemitism, particularly antisemitic violence around the world. It must be condemned in all its forms. The IHRA definition of antisemitism adopted by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Harris, in his statement on 16 January, however, takes the deeply concerning and problematic step of equating antisemitism with criticism of the actions of the state of Israel. This is a regressive step which must be reversed as a matter of urgency. In April 2023, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and more than 104 civil society groups signed a letter opposing this definition, warning that it has been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic. The letter states:

The IHRA definition has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and sometimes suppress, non-violent protest, activism and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism, including in the US and Europe.

I spoke this morning with Jews for Palestine Ireland, which told me it strongly opposes the Irish Government's adoption of the IHRA definition. It stated that the IHRA definition suppresses meaningful criticism of Israel while failing to protect Jewish people from antisemitism. I call for a debate on this issue. It is a very important one and I ask the Leader to organise a debate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on this issue as a matter of urgency.