Duncan Smith: Government Mothballing Occupied Territories Bill

Minister, I'm sorry but I don't believe you are committed to progressing the Occupied Territories Bill. I just don't. In your own speech it says, quite rightly, it was June 2025 when it went through pre-legislative scrutiny. It is now May 2026 and there is no sign, myself, Deputy Boyd Barrett, Deputy Gibney and others, every Thursday on the Business Committee are asking for the Occupied Territories Bill. Every Thursday, no answer. Silence. We don't know. But we know where your emphasis lies Minister because you've betrayed it in your speech which you've sent around because it actually states where the clip starts which presumably is an instruction to your social media team and where the clip ends and your emphasis from this speech which will go out is on coordination at EU level. Coordination at EU level is important but we have an opportunity to do things domestically on our own and this bill started by Senator Black nearly a decade ago, eight years ago, is that measure and you're not supporting it. I've no doubt that you have mothballed that legislation. I've no doubt whatsoever. So I'm enraged up here that we are in this situation. The honeyed words of Simon Harris when he was Minister for Foreign Affairs in that very seat, taken to his feet in the debate over the flotilla and saying not only would he be progressing the Occupied Territories Bill but he said it'd be by November 2025. That's what he said on the Dáil record. A promise. A promise broken. A promise that was in your program for government. A promise made to the people of Ireland before the last election. A promise that carried across the water, across the continent to the Palestinian people. Now they knew that this bill, if it was passed, probably wouldn't save one life. But it was a symbol, a tangible symbol. Now other states in Europe have actually gone ahead of us and actually delivered. Spain, Slovenia and we are now becoming a laggard in terms of our support for Palestine. And what is the threshold for action against Israel? 75,000 plus people have died in Gaza in the last three years. 2,800 in Lebanon since March. Over a thousand plus in the West Bank with the continued expansion of the illegal settlements. What is the threshold? Is it because Israel is a white Western economy that it is getting away with this exceptionalism? That if it was any other ethnicity, if it was in any other place in the world, it would be sanctioned beyond existence at this point. There's no other state that is as roguish, as illegal, as horrific as the Israeli state is over the last number of years, but for decades. And this new law that they brought in the Knesset in March, which you referenced in your speech, Minister, about the hangings, the death penalty. Israel has not carried out a judicial death sentence since 1962. They've carried out many, many killings, we know, but they've not carried out a judicial death sentence since 1962. And if you look at the United Nations, the United Nations say they're absolutely appalled, appalled beyond belief. I haven't seen such strong language coming in the UN document in relation to this. They said, the Knesset approved this bill. Israel has not carried out executions or post-death penalties since 1962. The new legislation not only marks a significant regression, it also does so by imposing capital punishment on de facto ethnic or national grounds and by diluting basic legal standards. It is the worst of the worst. This is where this state is at. And where are we this week? Yes, we've boycotted Eurovision. That is the right thing to do. But it is very, very small. That competition is still going ahead. Tens if not hundreds of millions of people are going to watch it. The vast majority of European nations are still taking part. We have a football match coming up in the autumn. That can't happen. That has to stop. We have to go belt and braces on sanctioning Israel. There is no other state in my lifetime or in any of our lifetimes that has acted with such impunity, that has acted so illegally, so grotesquely in terms of carrying out genocide. And there is stuff that we can do. There are measures that we can take. Sadaqa have launched this document this week, Beyond Words, most aptly named document, because words is all that we have given out of this chamber and out of this government for the people of Palestine, because we haven't delivered any action. And they set out in a fantastic document well-referenced actions that we can take without having to go through collective EU sanctions. Because that in essence is a cop-out. Because we know the veto powers of the EU. We know the states in the EU that will not support any actions against Israel. But we can do things here in terms of sanctioning Israel, in terms of sanctions, in terms of visas, in terms of military and civilian fights, in terms of dual-use technologies. We can do that now. We can support this bill. This is a strong, robust bill. It is the kind of bill that meets, insofar as we can, the devastation that's been caused by Israel. And we must support it. I am absolutely, I'm beyond frustrated. I'm enraged and angered and so let down that the one thing that we could have done between in the short lifetime of this government so far, was bring Senator Black's bill in some form, the spirit of the bill at least, into some form of legislation. This government I believe has abandoned it. I believe it's just worth, no I believe it has, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, until I see it, until I see you stand there Minister delivering a second stage speech on that bill, I will believe in my heart that that bill has been abandoned. Because that's how it feels.