Congress welcomes Amnesty International’s report which condemns Israeli Apartheid and calls for international action to end the oppression of the Palestinian people. The report entitled 'Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians : Cruel system of Domination and Crime against Humanity’ adds to an increasing list of human rights organisations levelling similar charges against Israel and totally validates our long-held critique of Israeli apartheid and support - as with S. Africa - for BDS.
On foot of the report, Amnesty has concluded that Israel has perpetrated the international wrong of apartheid and notes that “almost all of Israel’s civilian administration and military authorities, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental institutions, are involved in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against Palestinians across Israel and the OPT and against Palestinian refugees and their descendants outside the territory.”
Congress supports Amnesty International’s calls for international sanctions, including:
- an arms embargo against the Israeli state and individuals implicated in these crimes,
- that the International Criminal Court investigate Israeli Apartheid, and
- that the United Nations re-establish the Special Committee against Apartheid.
This month, Congress will be joining actions coordinated by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in support of Palestine. On February 12, it will be two years since the UN Human Rights Office published a database of enterprises doing business in Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The database exposes the companies that, directly and indirectly, have enabled, facilitated, and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements. But it is now out of date and urgently needs updating, in line with the original resolution and to help end corporate complicity in the occupation. Trade unions are calling on the UN Human Rights Commissioner to respect UNHRC resolution 31/36 and to update the database urgently.
In the upcoming UN Human Rights Council (28 February-25 March) Palestine and consideration of the Amnesty report will be on the agenda. Congress urges the Irish government to call on council members to take robust action against Israel for their continued violations of the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.
