Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have not denied that the Tánaiste has said a lot. He has said a lot diplomatically and legally and about humanitarian criticism on stopping the aid to UNRWA. He has said a lot. What I am asking is what he is going to do? The question of deed is at the heart of my argument. I was a young shop steward when the Dunnes Stores strike against apartheid happened. I knew Karen Gearon and Mary Manning very well. For three years, they stayed on the picket line on Henry Street and, after three years, the Government in this House brought in legislation to ban the importation of South African fruit and vegetables. However, it took three years of a struggle by ordinary, decent young workers. Now we are seeing the struggle by ordinary, decent young students to try to get people like the Tánaiste, the rulers of the world, to listen.

I call him ruler. I understand he is an elected ruler, but he has much more power than I have. If it was within my power, the Israeli ambassador would have been put out of here long ago.

The Government could do that but it is refusing to do it. I love the talk but we need action. Children are dying, as we speak, as a result of famine. Places are being bombed as we speak, and we face the potential of an absolute catastrophe in Rafah. There is that potential still, even after Joe Biden said he will refuse to send one shipment of bombs to Israel following all the stuff he has sent. The Government needs to act. Act means sanctions. Sanctions can be anything from refusing its services, ending the contract with Hewlett-Packard that we have in this House and expelling the Israeli ambassador. Take action in the way students in the United States and Trinity College have done. They have made a difference.

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