THE DÁIL WILL vote on Wednesday on whether to call on the Government to officially recognise the State of Palestine.
Sinn Féin will use its Private Members time on Wednesday to lay down the motion and have called on all parties to support it.
Back in October, the Seanad passed a similar motion calling on the Government to follow the lead of 135 nations in recognising Palestinian statehood.
The motion was passed without a vote in October when it was roundly supported and it was signed by 31 of the upper house’s 60 members.
Eight EU member states currently recognise Palestine as an State with Sweden recently becoming the first to do so while an EU member.
The recognition would be largely symbolic and Sinn Féin argues that doing so would help advance the international consensus for a two-state solution to the territorial conflict.
“The right of Palestinians to self-determination and to have their own state as well as the right of the State of Israel to exist within secure borders is unquestionable,” argued Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.
The motion specifically requests that the Government recognise the State of Palestine on the basis of borders in place prior to Israel’s 1967 occupation.
Currently, Ireland’s official position is that the State supports a two-state solution on those borders. It reads:
“A two state solution allied to a return to pre-1967 borders unless amended by agreement between the two parties, an agreed solution to the issue of Palestinian Refugees who fled/left their houses in 1948 and 1967, Israel to cease settlement activities and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.”
The Sinn Féin motion goes further in that it requests recognition of the state as opposed to a preferencial solution.
Introducing the motion, Adams said that Ireland “came onto the streets to demand an end to attacks on Gaza” during the Summer violence.
“Finding a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and between Arabs and Israelis in a broader context, is a key element of Irish foreign policy,” he added.
Sinn Féin had intended on using is private members’ time in the Dáil this week to table a motion of no confidence in Enda Kenny but the government has tabled a motion of confidence in the Taoiseach that will now be debated tomorrow instead.
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