Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have a simple question for the Taoiseach. How many innocent Palestinian civilians - men, women and children - does Israel have to slaughter, how many war crimes does Israel have to commit, and how much death and destruction does Israel have to visit on the people of Gaza and Palestine before the Taoiseach will call for and impose sanctions on Israel, expel the Israeli ambassador from this country and call for the immediate referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes? In front of the world, by its own admission, Israel is committing war crimes. The Israelis have stated so publicly; this is not a matter of opinion. They declared their intention to force, through the threat of military bombardment, more than a million Palestinians - it is now well more than a million - from their homes in northern Gaza and ethnically cleanse them. It is a crime against humanity. The Israelis have stated publicly the intention to deny water, electricity, medicine and life-saving equipment to 2.2 million people. They said so in front of the eyes of the world and they are doing it. Every minute, children are being slaughtered by their artillery and their relentless bombardment of residential complexes, hospitals, schools and civilian infrastructure. They just go on and on, and the Taoiseach does nothing. There are words of concern but no action to hold them to account.

These are clearly premeditated war crimes and genocide. There are Jewish people in the United States, Canada and around the world, and in Israel, calling this a genocide. Scholars and academics are saying it is genocidal. An Israeli general has said, "Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction." Yoav Gallant, an Israeli Minister, said, "We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly." He further stated that he had "removed every restriction" on the IDF. Another Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has stated, "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people." The President of Israel, referring to the people of Gaza, says they are all responsible. Before 7 October, Netanyahu appeared in front of the UN General Assembly with a map of Israel that had removed all references to Palestine. It was a clear declaration of intent to destroy the Palestinian people and steal all their land. A total of 6,000 Palestinians were killed between 2008 and 7 October this year. Thousands of Palestinians are held hostage, without trial, in administrative detention.

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