Richard Boyd Barrett Calls for Boycott of Israel

00:00 Taoiseach, you said today that Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted war criminal, doesn't 00:05 care if Ireland play a football game against Israel. Not true, right? If you 00:11 support BDS you're not allowed into Israel. You can be you can be jailed in 00:15 Israel if you support BDS. Why? Because they're terrified of boycott, divestment 00:20 and sanctions and they are terrified of people who say the truth that the 00:25 Israeli state itself is based on apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide 00:31 against the Palestinian people. And that is why they are worried and it is why 00:37 Joseph Haddad, who was in this building, right, as a mouthpiece for Israel, was 00:43 leading chants in the stadium while the game was going on in favor of the IDF. 00:49 The force that has carried out the genocide. They were leading chants. What kind of sick 00:56 state? Cheers for the armed forces engaged in a genocide. A state that is 01:02 not a normal state Taoiseach. That needs to be treated like apartheid South 01:06 Africa was treated. That needs to be boycotted just as we boycotted 01:11 apartheid South Africa. Now why don't you show leadership in the way Gavin 01:16 Mizuno did and give confidence and support to the footballers not to play 01:21 this rogue regime. And I would say to the Deputy, I think it was Deputy 01:27 Odemofi or someone else said you know again no action backed up by no action 01:32 to Deputy Boyd Barrett. It's just so untrue. You can't get away with 01:37 saying stuff like that you know. We've ensured continuing support to the 01:42 Palestinian Authority financially. We've allocated about 78 million to UNRWA 01:45 since 2023 of which 20 million was provided in 2026. We intervened in the 01:53 South Africa's International Court of Justice case against Israel 01:56 under the Genocide Convention. We made a submission to the International Court of 02:01 Justice on the legal consequences of Israel's actions in the OPT. We 02:06 subsequently co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 02:10 the 18th of September 2024 which seeks to implement the court's advisory 02:14 opinion. We recognize Palestine as a sovereign and independent state. Since 02:20 2024 there has been medical evacuations of sick children along with their family 02:24 members for treatment and plans are ongoing for further missions. The Department of 02:29 Foreign Affairs and Trade have supported over 400 people to leave Gaza and travel 02:32 to Ireland since the crisis began. We've led Deputy from the front on this 02:37 issue and I think it's just nonsense to be saying it's just statements and 02:44 nothing else and no action. It has been clear and there's more than that and there's 02:47 more than that. One of the big issues we have and we also then signed into law 02:52 the Israeli settlements prohibition of importation of goods. We were the first 02:57 country, European Union country, to announce measures prohibiting trade 03:00 with Israeli settlements. We led the way on that issue followed by Spain closely 03:05 and now other countries are pursuing that and I welcome the statements that 03:10 have been made by United Kingdom, France and Canada and that they're also 03:14 acting on the issue of trade with Israeli settlements and there has been a 03:21 reset in respect of the United Kingdom and I've welcomed that and I've spoken 03:25 with Prime Minister Burnham on that and again we were continuing to push for a 03:32 ban on trade including services at European Union level where it would be 03:34 far more effective. The fundamental issue though remains how you change the 03:42 Israeli government from pursuing the policies and sort of militarization 03:50 campaign that it's pursuing and that is the fundamental question and within 03:54 Europe there's been division. Many member states for historic reasons have 03:59 been very very slow to hold Israel to account, have been very naive in 04:03 accepting Israeli guarantees all along the way in respect of this.