Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald TD, this evening implored the government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, adding that any government, truly on the side of humanity, would do so immediately. 

Speaking as Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD, moved a Dáil motion on the issue, Deputy McDonald said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were guilty of ‘a blatant U-turn, a monumental act of bad faith, designed to delay the imposition of sanctions against Israel’s apartheid regime. It is cynical and so utterly shameful.’

Teachta McDonald’s Dáil contribution in full:

If you walk down Henry Street here in Dublin, just outside Dunnes Stores you will find two plaques. The plaques are inscribed with the names of 11 courageous Dunnes Stores workers who in 1984 went out on strike and took to the picket lines in protest against the company’s handling of goods from apartheid South Africa. For more than two and half years, Mary Manning and her colleagues sustained their inspirational stand. A stand which directly led to the then government introducing a ban on the importing of goods from South Africa. 

The heroic protest of the Dunnes Stores workers is often acknowledged as one of the international campaigns which contributed directly to the ending of the apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela said that hearing of the workers’ protest helped sustain him while he was imprisoned. On his visit to Ireland following his release in 1990, Mandela said that because of the workers’ campaign, millions of South Africans saw that “ordinary people far away from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom.” 

Today, that crucible of apartheid is found in Palestine, in the brutality inflicted on its people by the colonising, occupying, dehumanising, criminal Israeli regime. The crescendo of this cruel apartheid is the genocide perpetrated against the men, women, and children of Gaza. 

For 15 months now, the ordinary people of Ireland have stood resolutely and unwaveringly on the side of human rights, justice, and the rule of international law. They have stood up for the Palestinian people. They have marched and called for an end to the genocide, an end to the occupation, an end to Israel’s apartheid. The ordinary people of Ireland stand once again on the right side of history, and they called on the government to stand on that side of the line by enacting the Occupied Territories Bill.

The Bill would ban the trading of goods, and services, into Ireland from Palestinian lands that have been colonised, occupied, and illegally settled by Israel. Not only is it a legal response to Israel’s brutal crimes but it chimes directly with the values of the vast majority of the Irish people.

So the idea that the Government would now move to replace the Bill with a watered-down version, a counterfeit Bill that enfeebles legislation would represent a stunning betrayal of the Palestinian people.

Let’s be very clear – the cradle of Israel’s apartheid system and its genocide in Gaza is the impunity gifted to it by the international community for decades. Carte blanche to commit war crimes and human rights violations at will, and to tear asunder international law without ever facing sanction or accountability. Worse still, words of support and common cause to the genocidal Netanyahu regime, the arming of Israel by the United States, by Britain, and by others in Europe is an obscenity.

The assertion by the US President, Donald Trump, the leader of the free world, that the dispossessed, impoverished, and brutalised population of Gaza should be permanently exiled to facilitate Israeli occupation, and those wishing to construct a dystopian riviera, is astounding in its cruelty and demonstrates utter disregard for human rights and international law.

The only way to stop Israel is to sanction Israel. Just as Ireland took the lead by sanctioning Apartheid South Africa in 1987 it must take the lead today by sanctioning Apartheid genocidal Israel. That means enacting the Occupied Territories Bill. This one. The one that is here and ready to go. Not some pale imitation.

Tánaiste, the amendment you propose to our motion confirms that this government has walked away from the Occupied Territories Bill. It is a blatant U-turn, a monumental act of bad faith, designed to delay the imposition of sanctions against Israel’s apartheid regime. It is cynical and so utterly shameful.

Caithfidh an rialtas seo an Bille um Críocha faoi Fhorghabháil – an Bille atá tacaíocht an phobail tugtha dó – a achrú le práinn, ní lagaithris a fhaigheann réidh le héifeacht na reachtaíochta.

In 2008, the man who is now Taoiseach spoke at the unveiling of one of those plaques on Henry Street dedicated to the Dunnes Stores workers. He rightly said that Ireland is proud of their courageous actions. Eleven shop workers, with no power other than their moral determination, principles, and humanity, stood up to apartheid in South Africa and they helped to defeat it.

Today, Tánaiste, you and Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, hold the two most powerful offices in the land. To make a difference, you don’t have to do what Mary Manning and her friends did forty-one years ago.

You don’t have to stand for years on the picket line in the cold, wind, and rain. You simply can enact the Occupied Territories Bill. You can step forward, tonight, and announce that to the world, and in doing so you will give the people of Palestine the same light of hope that the Dunnes Stores workers gave to Nelson Mandela in his prison cell. The hope that they are not alone. The hope that those who persecute, oppress and slaughter them will be confronted and held to account. The hope that one day the sun will rise on the faces of their children in a time of freedom, justice, peace, and nationhood.

This hope is contained in the words and pages of the Occupied Territories Bill, and any government, truly on the side of humanity, would enact it immediately. No ifs, no buts, no delays, no prevarication. No new legislation. The Occupied Territories Bill, now.