Tánaiste Simon Harris has underlined his intention to lobby EU member states to vote for “practical sanctions and measures that could be taken” to end the genocidal conditions in Gaza after arriving in New York on Sunday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly high-level week.
He described the fact that the keynote conference on a two-state solution for Gaza will take place without representation from the Palestinian Authority as “outrageous” and “an extraordinarily dangerous precedent”.
“That is a concern in the here and now but it is also a dangerous precedent now as people decide who can and can’t come to the United Nations,” he said, speaking outside the office of the permanent mission of Ireland to the United Nations, on Second Avenue.
He hopes to garner sufficient support to pass measures through a qualified majority vote that would enable EU member states to take what he called “practical action”.
READ MORE
“I am open to being proven wrong, but I am optimistic that there may well be a majority of member states open to sanction measures. The UN independent inquiry has found that genocidal activity is happening. Other external agencies have told us there is a man-made famine in Gaza and this kind of hope that ongoing dialogue with Israel will change the situation simply has not happened. It’s gone the opposite direction.”
Mr Harris’s remarks coincided with the official recognition by the United Kingdom, Australia and others of the statehood rights of Palestine, as he noted the growing sense of urgency among the international community to the horrors inflicted daily on Gaza.
“When we first started talking about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Ireland’s position was quite a lonely one. Ireland and Spain and a couple of other countries. Now I think there is a very significant shift. It is belated to be quite frank, but I am working to see if we can get a coalition of member states that would pass at least some of these measures.
“And then, that it would meet quickly. You can’t say on one hand there is a genocide going on, there’s a famine going on, children are starving ... we’ll see you in six weeks. We need to inject a bit of urgency here.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin will address the two-state solution conference hosted by France and the United Nations on Monday afternoon, where he is expected to emphasise that outcome as the only viable outcome to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Meanwhile, asked about the recent comments of Ceann Comhairle Veronica Murphy about the “vast increase” of online threats to Oireachtas members, the Tánaiste said he welcomed her remarks and not simply in the aftermath of the vile threats issued towards his own family recently.
“Lots of members of Dáil Éireann, of people in public life, have received significant threats and abuse and I welcome her proposals. I think, first of all, it would be good if we could see the laws we have implemented. It is illegal to threaten somebody’s child. It is illegal to threaten to carry out sexual violence against somebody. It is illegal to ring five or six Garda stations and threaten to blow up somebody’s home. So, it is really important that laws are enforced. I don’t mean in relation to my own case, but more broadly that these issues are taken extraordinarily seriously.”
He added that those best equipped to deal with the issue – the tech companies in charge of the digital platforms – consciously choose not to ignore the phenomenon and that the Government is seeking to establish what it can do independently through powers conferred by the EU.
“If we decide in Ireland that the age of consent is 16 , who are any of these digital media companies to decide anything else?”
