Member's statement: Mothers Against Genocide
Member's statement by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on .
- MLA
- Ms Carál Ní Chuilín
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 24 February 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Mothers Against Genocide
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4813378
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last week, Pat Sheehan and I met Mothers Against Genocide. On behalf of Sinn Féin, I thank that group for the meeting. Mothers Against Genocide is a cross-community group of women who have come together to call for solidarity in ending genocide. It is a collective of women from across all religious and political viewpoints and classes that is calling for an end to genocide in Gaza and for the promotion of a lasting peace in Palestine. Its aim is to have all legislators recognise the need for Palestinian rights and to end, under international law, Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. It asked us to call for the protection of humanitarian workers, journalists and health and social care staff in line with international humanitarian law. It further asked us to raise the concern that ongoing arms sales enable genocide, saying that those sales need to end and that that also needs to be done in line with international law. It also asked for our support for a ban on trade with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestine. Advocates for businesses in the North and public bodies also need to look at their ethical procurement policies. That includes looking at firms that provide goods to businesses that are complicit in the occupation of Palestine. We all should call for and defend the rights of individuals, institutions and businesses to engage in boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) without legal restrictions.
We all must call for an increase in humanitarian aid. We need to put measures in place that will allow sick and injured children to evacuate Palestine and travel to the North of Ireland for treatment, similar to schemes that are already in place in Dublin and London. We also call for the restoration of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) funding to support Palestinian refugees. We need to ensure that work continues with international bodies to support a just and lasting solution that is based on equality and human rights. It should be on all our lips that every child, every citizen, Israeli or Palestinian, deserves to grow up feeling loved, happy and safe. We call for that pledge to continue throughout all legislatures.
364 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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