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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he will not use the term “apartheid” in describing Israel’s policies against Palestinians following the publication of an Amnesty International report that does so.
Martin described some policies followed by Israel as “counterproductive” but added that using the term apartheid would not “add anything right now”.
Last week, Amnesty International labelled Israel an apartheid state that treats Palestinians as “an inferior racial group,” joining the assessment of other rights groups which the Jewish state vehemently rejects.
Amnesty stressed it was not comparing the situation to apartheid-era South Africa but that Israeli conduct met the criteria for the crime of apartheid under international law.
New York-based Human Rights Watch in April last year became the first major international rights group to publicly level the allegation.
Amnesty now asserts that Israeli-enforced apartheid exists in occupied Palestinians territories and within Israel itself, where Arab citizens make up more than 20% of the population.
Israel has strongly rejected Amnesty’s claims, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid saying they were “divorced from reality”.
In the Dáil today, Independent TD Catherine Connolly said that Amnesty’s report was “a damning indictment of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people”.
She asked Martin whether he had read the report and added:
Does the Taoiseach agree with the conclusions that an apartheid system is in operation? Will he raise it at EU and UN level? Does he agree that the International Criminal Court should consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in respect of the occupied territories, Israel and what it has done?
In response, An Taoiseach said that he visited Gaza in 2009 and that “not much has changed in terms of segregation and the routes Palestinians have to take in the occupied territories”.
He added that the Amnesty report was being examined by the Department of Foreign Affairs and that he also “will get through it as quickly as I can”.
“We believe that Israeli policy is counterproductive to the emergence and triumph of moderate opinion within Palestine, in both the West Bank and Gaza. In many ways that policy has allowed extremists to get the upper hand, in my view. We have pointed this out time and again,” he said.
Connolly disagreed with Martin’s assertion that “very little has changed”, arguing that “the apartheid regime has become entrenched.
“It is no longer just statements from various politicians. It has become entrenched in legislation, policy and practice, while the suffering of the Palestinian people has intensified,” she said.
Martin said that the Ireland’s voice on Middle Eastern conflict has been “objective and honourable” and that the country is a strong supporter of human rights and relief works.
This included, he said, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees.
“We fund civil society and have continued to fund civil society and human rights organisations that Israel has labelled as terrorist or whatever,” Martin said.
“We do not accept that labelling and we are pushing our European colleagues to continue to support these organisations. I will not use the term “apartheid” because I am not sure it will add anything right now.”
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There comes a time when even a politician must choose sides.
@Piggy: And he chose diplomatically and wisely
@Piggy: and M Martin has decided he’s ok with apartheid. That should come as no surprise as he never really had a problem with the religious and sectarian apartheid which existed in a part of his own country.
@Nameo Maximus: I
It’s not something anyone can be neutral on now is it?l
The global influence of israel is something to behold. What other ‘country’ can periodically murder thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, deprive them of social and economic rights since 1948, demolish homes because they do not have the right permit and operate a two tier society favouring settlers and settlements which the whole world have agreed are illegal. When this apartheid is called out by such a respected organisation as Amnesty they claim anti semitism without addressing even one point in the report. The special treatment israel enjoys on the world stage only seems to embolden it with countries tripping over themselves to condemn the use of the term apartheid. In reality what israel practices is far far worse than anything South Africa ever did.
@Anton Harris: You mention 1948, yet no mention of the two wars the Arab states started. Drive them into the sea was the term used I believe.
@Anton Harris: Spot on
@Denis Ryan: at that time that was awful and wrong, agreed. As was England’s occupation of Ireland and germanies treatment of everyone around them.. many nations have committed atrocities in the past and it was stopped or ended. We can’t change that. This is now, the present.. its happening. We can stop it or allow it to become the future and let it keep happening. Just because one side did wrong in a time that can now not be changed doesn’t mean to accept what is happening now, which can be changed.
@Anton Harris: Apartheid in South Africa was established in 1948, the same year that the Israeli state came into being. Let nots forget, its not very long ago when many felt South African apartheid was here to stay.
When Micky Martin makes a public statement like he refuses to call the Israeli regime the apartheid state that an ever growing number people believe it to be, he should be aware of what an embarrassing legacy he is leaving behind and will yet be judged with.
@Anton Harris: North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia… Not standing up for Israel here, just the idea that Israel is in some way unique is not true.
And former US President Jimmy Carter’s book “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” has been around for almost a quarter of a century. Accurate then, accurate now.
Have some gonads. Boycott Israel, China and Saudi Arabia for their respective human rights abuses.
@Paul Cunningham: And turn a blind eye to every other countries Human rights violation?
@Roy Dowling: Fine. Add Hungary to the list. Homophobic kip. Poland too.
@Paul Cunningham: are you forgetting Guantanamo ?
@David F. Dwyer: Hungary is far from a homophobic kip. But yes you can add them to the list. You can also add the America. They illegally torture people. They also separated kids from their parents and put them in cages on the border with Mexico + many more. You can add Russia etc as well. In fact you’d be hard pressed to find many countries that have violated some Human rights in the last decade.
@Roy Dowling: So why did it bring in discriminatory legislation against LBGT folk? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_anti-LGBT_law
@Michael Graham: how can you mention Guantanamo and not mention Ireland and Shannon airport?
@Roy Dowling: Where did he say that?
@Angela McCarthy: Guantanamo bay houses prisoners who are treated very badly and never had a trial. Some are locked upfor over 20 years. What has that to do with shannon airport?
”such a respected organisation as Amnesty”–what tosh! respected by who? certainly not by me.
@Michael Fahy: by most educated and informed people thats who,
obviously your not one one of them, but l for one will not worry about your opinion
Oh yeah not before he gets his trip to the White House anyway.
Shame!
Atleast most Irish people are aware that Israel is an apartheid state.
It’s beyond parody, not a single article on Amnestys report on Isreali apartheid, or coverage of Palestinians killed & ethnic cleansed in the West Bank. But they run a piece rejecting the Amnesty report they never mentioned. Nothing on Yemen atrocities, the story on kids killed in Syria buried – Western civilisation is still run by white supremacists
@Kerrill Thornhill: What are you saying – because Yemen and Syria wasnt mentioned, it means Amnesty was wrong in describing Israel as an apartheid state? Does that mean if Yemen was Syria was mentioned, that would mean Israel is an Apartheid state?
And if Amnesty made a public statement about human rights abuses in Yemen, but not about Syria or Israel or China etc, would that mean in your eyes that Amnesty was wrong about what it said about Yemen?
@Angela McCarthy: Apologies Angela, I should have been clearer. I was referring to the editorial choices of what articles are covered in the news here – The Journal never ran an article about the original Amnesty report on apartheid, but published this article of MM rejecting the term Apartheid = Deliberately muted criticism gives Israel a free pass for ethnic cleansing. – e.g. Western allies war crime are covered up, then media moralise and fabricate stories about non-aligned countries to appear morally superior
he admitted he has not read the Amnesty report yet he can say calling out apartheid israel would not be appropriate?
Appalling decision by Martin. and cowardly too!
“ in terms of segregation and routes Palestinians must take”
When laws like these exist aimed at one race then that is apartheid!
He’s not going to upset the U.S., when his visit to the White House is just weeks away. He can almost taste it…..
So apartheid is ‘counterproductive’ now. I suppose that’s one way of describing it.
Alienate the world why don’t you… You be without, electricity, petrol, oil,…. In no time!!!
surely he should make his position clear on the Amnesty International report, it’s clear conclusion is that Israel is an apartheid state.
does he agree with the Amnesty report or not?
stating that the word apartheid is not helpful is dodging the issue
have your say