If you walk down Henry Street 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 went on strike in 1984 and took to the picket lines in protest against the company's handling of goods from apartheid South Africa. For more than two and a half years, Mary Manning and her colleagues sustained their inspirational stand. It was a stand which directly led to the then Government introducing a ban on the importation of goods from South Africa. The heroic protest of the Dunnes Stores workers is often acknowledged as one of the international campaigns that contributed directly to the ending of the apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela said that hearing of the workers' protest helped to 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 and criminal Israeli regime. The crescendo of this cruel apartheid is the genocide perpetrated against the children, women and men 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, to the occupation and to Israel's apartheid. The ordinary people of Ireland stand once again on the right side of history and they call on their Government to stand on that side of the line by enacting the occupied territories Bill, which 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 Irish people. 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 us be clear. The cradle of Israel's apartheid system and genocide in Gaza is the impunity gifted to it by the international community for decades. It has been given 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, the words of support and common cause to the genocidal Netanyahu regime and the arming of Israel by the United States, Britain and others in Europe is an obscenity.
Sentiment score: -0.06
The assertion by US President Donald Trump, the leader of the free world, that the dispossessed, impoverished and brutalised refugee 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, the one that is here and ready to go, not some pale imitation. The amendment that the Tánaiste has proposed to our motion confirms that this Government has walked away from the occupied territories Bill. It is a blatant U-turn and a monumental act of bad faith designed to delay the imposition of sanctions against the Israeli regime. It is cynical and shameful. Caithfidh an Rialtas an Bille um chríocha faoi fhorghabháil, an Bille a bhfuil tacaíocht an phobail tugtha dó, a achtú le práinn. Ní le haithris a fhaightear 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 Ireland is proud of their courageous actions. Eleven shopworkers with no power other than their moral determination, principles and humanity stood up to apartheid South Africa and helped to defeat it. Today, the Tánaiste and Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, hold the two most powerful offices in the land. To make a difference, they do not have to do what Mary Manning and her friends did 41 years ago. They do not have to stand for years on the picket line in the cold, wind and rain. They simply can enact the occupied territories Bill. They can step forward tonight and announce that to the world, and in doing so, they will give the people of Palestine that same light of hope the Dunnes Stores workers gave to Nelson Mandela in his prison cell. It is the hope that they are not alone, the hope that those who persecute, oppress and slaughter them will be confronted and held to account, and 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 provisions of the occupied territories Bill. Any government truly on the side of humanity would enact it immediately. No ifs, buts, delays, prevarication or new legislation, but the occupied territories Bill now.
Sentiment score: 0.09
What are they?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Explain them.
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We can tut-tut if we want to.
Sentiment score: 0.08
You should have set out your rationale.
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Absolute waffle.
Sentiment score: 0.00