Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. I will try to focus my comments solely on referral to the ICC. Israel's illegal actions against the Palestinian people were referred to the ICC prosecutor in 2014. An investigation was opened in 2021 but, it is fair to say, it has stagnated. As the situation has progressed and become an horrific reality beyond comprehension we have an urgent role to play.

The Rome Statute is designed to punish breaches of international law. There is an implied obligation on states to call out breaches when they occur. Right now in Gaza, they are occurring at an unprecedented and inhumane rate. Of course, Ireland making a referral would increase pressure on the chief investigator to expedite the investigation but it would in no way hamper it, as was outlined by the Minister for State earlier.

We in the international community are witnessing a genocide unfold. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. They stopped counting the dead last Friday. In all legitimacy, they could not count the number of people under the rubble so they stopped releasing figures. Gaza has been described as a graveyard for children. It was the Minister who described it in these terms today. A child is being killed every ten minutes. A total of 40% of the Palestinian population is under the age of 18. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OHCA, more than 1.5 million people in Gaza are estimated to be internally displaced. I was conscious of this earlier today when the Minister referred to it today as a graveyard for children. Surely this requires more than words. It requires action.

On 10 October a UN independent international commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem in Israel, stated that there is clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza and that all those who have violated international law by targeting civilians must be held accountable. War crimes are defined in Article 8 of the Rome Statute. The most relevant are in Article 8.2(b) and include:

(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;

(ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;

(iii) Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict

Without independent sight on the ground in Palestine, it is impossible to know the scale of the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the World Health Organization, Amnesty International, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Médecins Sans Frontières-Doctors Without Borders and the International Federation of the Red Cross, among others, have all described Israel's army's collective punishment undertaken through a blockade of fuel, medicine, water, electrical generators and solar energy units. The deliberate targeting of hospitals and ambulances is in breach of medical neutrality. It is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Hospitals and medical personnel are specifically protected under international humanitarian law. This has not happened overnight of course. It is the culmination of 75 years of impunity for endless violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The Israeli government has perpetrated a cycle of dehumanisation, which fuels the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, 70% of whom have been innocent women and children.

I mentioned genocide. It is not a term I use lightly. It is one that when stated, should be done with the utmost importance and given the legal definition it deserves. The International Court of Justice is invoked under the genocide convention if it is found that breaches of the convention are plausible. "Plausible" is an important word in this context. The Geneva Convention was the first treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and it is considered to be the building block of the international human rights system. In the absence of accountability, we have now reached the point of genocide in terms of what is happening to the Gazan population. The Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant was quoted as saying:

I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.

The Geneva Convention defines genocide as committing specified acts involving "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such". The group is what must be targeted on grounds that include nationality or ethnicity, and it is a group that is protected. The part targeted for destruction can be represented by a subgroup, for example in a specific geographic area. Palestinians living in Gaza are part of the Palestinian population and can constitute the targeted group for the purposes of the genocide convention.

The right of self-defence is bound by the principles of international law, as well as by the rule of proportionality, and cannot consist of retaliatory or punitive actions. For this reason, no state or individual can ever be permitted to justify genocide in the name of self-defence. On Friday last,, 10 November, Mr. Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor at the ICC, stated, "We are witnessing a pandemic of inhumanity: to halt the spread, we must cling to the law". I note the Taoiseach's comment, from almost two weeks ago now, to the effect that what we are witnessing in Gaza is more akin to vengeance.

If it is possible to justify the killing of any children for any reason, then we can justify anything. In that moment, we have lost our humanity. We are, therefore, asking for the Dáil, tonight and tomorrow, to urgently enforce what is perhaps the most basic and important legal and moral obligation in the world, namely, the prevention of genocide. We must take all available measures to secure a ceasefire, to pressure Israel to end all military operations and to ensure the provision of food, water, medical supplies, emergency housing and other humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. The international community must achieve the immediate end of Israel's 16-year closure of the Gaza Strip, its 56-year military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the apartheid regime the country administers across historical Palestine.

In line with its previous findings, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, stated on 10 October that it emphasised "that the only path towards ending violence and achieving sustainable peace is through addressing the root causes of the conflict including through ending the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and recognising the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination". Yesterday, I listened to Gaza city surgeon Marwan Abu Saada describe the excruciating process of performing procedures without anaesthesia, which is often the only option to prevent wounds from becoming infected to a deadly extent. I cannot imagine the inhumanity being inflicted on the population of Gaza. If we do not act now, when will we?

The Minister of State, Deputy Collins, presented the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 to the Dáil in 2019 when a member of the Opposition. While I was sitting here, I read the Second State speech he made when introducing that legislation. I think it is important. Many of the words contained in that contribution are probably reminiscent of what we are experiencing now in terms of bringing motions to the Dáil. I will read some of the now Minister of State's contribution on that occasion. The legislation is referred to in our own motion that we will be moving here tomorrow evening. The Minister of State stated, "No condemnation has been strong enough to change Israel's approach, and it would appear that the Israeli authorities have become accustomed to tuning out criticism." He went on to say, "To those who have tried to dissuade us from supporting the Bill and say that it is not the time for such a Bill, I say if this is not the time to act, when will that time come?" He also indicated in the absence of action, Israel was just being allowed to continue on, referring to the occupied territories and the expansion of settlements.

What we are witnessing now is far beyond that. I have to ask the Minister of State, who supported that Bill, and spoke with such eloquence when he did so, and the other 30-odd Fianna Fáil Deputies and Senators who last year called for the expulsion of the Russian ambassador on the same grounds of having committed war crimes in Ukraine, what the difference is? To use the words of the Minister of State, if we do not act now, when will we? I ask because what we are witnessing now is hypocrisy of the highest order. The people in Gaza are undeserving of that..

Our State has a role to play. We have stood out in this regard in recent times because the bar is so low in the context of the rest of Europe. We have, however, been a strong voice in the UN throughout our history. The Minister of State's contribution was worthwhile. What do we do now though? Will we retreat from what the Minister of State said in 2019? Will we retract those words? The time for action is now. I support the motion being brought forward by Sinn Féin tonight and I will be introducing our own motion in this regard tomorrow. I encourage the Minister of State and his colleagues to support action; the time for words is long past.

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