The head of an advocacy organisation created by women who have won the Nobel Peace Prize has expressed support for the proposed Occupied Territories Bill, following a trip to the occupied West Bank where she witnessed “the expansion of militarised violence of the apartheid system, and the system of dehumanisation and domination of Palestinians”.
Maria Butler, executive director of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, highlighted “the dispossession and expansion of settlements, people losing land, the checkpoints, the economic pressures ... the consistent everyday realities”, which she said had worsened for Palestinians in the last year-and-a-half.
Butler, from Kill, Co Kildare, was travelling with a delegation including American Jody Williams, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work on the international campaign against landmines. They visited East Jerusalem, the city of Ramallah and nearby Al-Mughayir village.
Butler said those they met included a 19-year-old Palestinian woman who had been shot in the leg by an Israeli settler and a man who had just been served with a demolition order for his home.
“This is a systematic policy, and this is a system of violence and impunity, total impunity,” Butler said. In the West Bank, she said, Palestinians had “been totally dispossessed. They have no legal recourse. They don’t have access to equal rights, and there is no accountability for violence”.
Following the visit, Butler said the Nobel Women’s Initiative supported “all concrete action towards accountability” and that Ireland’s long-stalled Occupied Territories Bill would be “a clear and principled step for Ireland to uphold its own obligations under international law and to stand against injustices”. The Bill, originally introduced by Senator Frances Black, would have the effect of banning trade between Ireland and Israel‘s illegal settlements in Palestine.
In the West Bank, Butler said, “people have such gratitude about the understanding of the Irish people. I felt that really deeply in each of the interactions, whether it’s meeting doctors or nurses or carers or mothers”.
Palestinians “felt and understood not only the solidarity ... but the action, the mobilisation and the moral courage of Irish people to support not only Palestinians, but our own values of humanity and international human rights”, she said.
The Nobel Women’s Initiative was created in 2006 to support women’s groups campaigning for peace and justice around the world.
Pressure must continue on Israel and on Israel’s allies to have basic food, water, healthcare services enter Gaza
International human rights organisations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have long accused Israel of imposing a system of apartheid against Palestinians in areas under its control.
A representative for the Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment on this and other points.
A recent report by the United Nations Human Rights Office found there has been significant expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, saying “steps have been taken towards implementing plans to construct over 20,000 housing units in new or existing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem alone”.
Last July, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling declaring Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank illegal, saying it must withdraw and end settlement activity, and pay Palestinians reparations.
Butler said her delegation met Palestinian women from East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and women who live in what are known as “1948” areas. “Each of them face different but very systemic barriers to their rights across all levels,” she said.
“Obviously, in Gaza, it’s very different. The genocide, the ongoing bombardment and siege, is at a different level ... it’s 17 months of relentless bombardments of a siege where families are under unbelievable pressures, violence, pain.” She said her delegation spoke to women in Gaza online, as well as meeting families with children who had been evacuated from the territory. “There is a huge exhaustion and trauma among those working in Gaza. I think that was evident.”
Israel has killed more than 52,000 people in its war on Gaza since October 7th, 2023, says the Hamas-run health ministry there, and is facing a genocide case in the International Court of Justice. In its annual report, on April 29th, Amnesty International called the bombardment of Gaza a “live-streamed but unheeded genocide”.
Butler said a permanent ceasefire for Gaza and the ending of Israel’s blockade of the enclave were of critical importance. “This hell of not having any aid enter Gaza is horrific, and the pressure must continue on Israel and on Israel’s allies to have basic food, water, healthcare services enter Gaza.”
At the same time, Butler said she had heard stories of “women helping women in Gaza today and upholding their own humanity. And that’s what we also saw in the West Bank: the resilience of Palestinian women, of human rights defenders, of organisations; despite every single barrier that comes, every single violent action they face, they continue to work. And I think it’s upon us to support their work, to uplift it, to make it visible, to provide funding for it.”
