Debate contribution: End Israeli Impunity in Gaza

Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on 24 June 2025.

MLA

Mr Doug Beattie MC

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

24 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

End Israeli Impunity in Gaza

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5047334

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I wrote an extensive section for my contribution that highlighted Sinn Féin's support for global terrorism, including support for Libya's Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat of the PLO, and how it is that that drives Sinn Féin's bias in the region and its ideology. I decided against including it, however. I instead decided that I would scrutinise the motion against our amendment. Sinn Féin outlines the genuine suffering of the Palestinian people, yet it ignores the documented rape, torture and murder of Israeli citizens. The Ulster Unionist Party amendment affirms that all life, be it Palestinian or Israeli:

"is of equal value and must be protected under international law".

Sinn Féin condemns Israel for all its actions while deliberately stepping over the role of Hamas and its brutal control of the Palestinian people; its arbitrary detention of its citizens, including 17 journalists and six human rights activists; its torture and isolation of minority groups; its extrajudicial executions; its indoctrination of children; and its failure to protect women and girls from gender-based violence while supporting the marriage of girls under the age of 15. Hamas also supports violence in the home, giving husbands free rein to do whatever they want to do. The Ulster Unionist Party amendment condemns Israel's actions of using hunger as a weapon of war, outlines its disproportionate military campaign in Gaza, which is not in keeping with international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict or:

"the principles of necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity".

We do so while outlining:

"Iran's destabilising role in the region"

by using terrorist organisations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi militias to attack Israel, its people and its interests, as well as Western organisations, through global terrorism.

Sinn Féin's motion commends a media stunt: the Madleen Freedom Flotilla. That flotilla contained no aid of any substantial use to Gazans. It was used to boost egos.

Yes.

Yes, but they got the likes on YouTube. That is what really matters. The flotilla was about the participants promoting themselves on social media. It was shameful narcissism, making the suffering of Gazans all about them. The Ulster Unionist Party's amendment, on the other hand, calls for a rejection of "any form of collective punishment"; again rails against:

"the denial of ... food, water ... and essential services";

opposes the

"forced displacement of the Gaza population";

and

"supports the urgent establishment of UN-led humanitarian corridors"

with sustained and continuous aid, medical access and essential services. The Sinn Féin motion welcomes a recent decision by third-level institutions such as Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin to "divest from Israeli investments"; a key privilege tool that will help the starving children of Gaza. Really? We need to get a grip. Those institutions do that while Irish airspace and Shannon Airport are being used to move hundreds of thousands of US troops, equipment, arms and munitions into the Middle East and north Africa, and they turn a blind eye to it. The Occupied Territories Bill in the South, the enactment of which Sinn Féin is calling for, will fix that, no? No, it will not; it will continue. The Ulster Unionist Party's amendment calls for:

"diplomatic steps to secure a swift and sustained ceasefire"

to promote genuine dialogue, putting Israeli and Palestinian aspirations front and centre. We do not support a hierarchy of aspiration or victim. Taking a side in a long and complicated conflict is simply counterproductive. Sinn Féin calls for the UK to recognise Palestine while many surrounding countries believe that Israel does not have the right to exist. The Ulster Unionist Party calls for a two-state solution as envisaged by the Oslo agreement, with both states having a right to exist in peace and security, free from threats. The Sinn Féin motion calls for an arms embargo on Israel, yet terrorist groups, supported by a heavily armed Iran, continue to arm themselves. Sinn Féin also fails to mention that four companies in the Irish Republic are supplying parts for munitions and technology to Israel. That does not seem to be in the motion either. The Ulster Unionist Party believes that Israel has a right to defend itself, and the minimal military equipment that is supplied by the UK is mostly for defensive purposes in the form of radar and early warning component parts. Why does Israel need that radar? It needs it because it is under continuous attack. We can clearly agree on some issues, and I have outlined them. The Sinn Féin motion, however, is based on support for terrorism, not the stabilisation of the region. It refuses to criticise, even in the most basic terms, the actions of Hamas. It shows a level of bias that undermines the real issues facing the region. It is the self-righteous, self-interested virtue signalling of some who see Palestine solidarity purely as a Twitter graphic for likes.

I thank the Member for raising that point. Here is where I come from in all this: balance. Let us have some balance. Why is it OK for an Israeli child to die but not OK for a Palestinian child or vice versa? Let us get balance. There is no balance in the motion. We need to be better than this. We cannot be led by TikTok or Instagram. Getting a photo wearing a shemagh — for those who do not know, it is that scarf that they wear around their neck — .

One moment. Wearing a shemagh cannot be the sum of support for a people in a desperate situation or a region overcome by violence. Instead, let us double down on our efforts to get a long-lasting, sustainable ceasefire, ensure that humanitarian aid corridors are set up and work and use diplomatic means to move towards a lasting peace where Israeli and Palestinian can live side by side and the malign influence of Iran no longer has a grip on them.

I thank the Member for his intervention, but he has absolutely no understanding of his point. They are in a country that is surrounded by the likes of Iran and Syria, along with Hezbollah and Hamas, and being bombed by the Houthis. Seriously, you should think it through. Balance, guys. It might be easy to support the Sinn Féin motion because that is the popular thing to do, but read it carefully. Compare it with the Ulster Unionist Party amendment, and you will see clearly who has laid out the issue at hand and who has the right approach to a difficult conflict, ensuring that the lives of a Palestinian and an Israeli are of equal measure. That is not what the motion gives us.

1,111 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:55 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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