Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry if I am getting to the Minister. In fairness, if it is 16 July it is 16 July, but that still does not change the fact that the Dáil should be recalled to debate this issue, and the only person who can do that is the Taoiseach.

To deal with the Government's abstention on the vote, I do not just blame the Government, or the Minister, in that regard. There is no question that the EU's response to this crisis has been tepid, pathetic and weak because the vast bulk of people the Minister represents, and the vast bulk of Europeans, roundly condemn what has been happening in Gaza and in the West Bank. All of us condemn it.

While I support Israel's right to exist and defend itself, I also support a two-state solution which leaves the Palestinians with something they can build a nation state on. Since the siege of Gaza commenced, the people in Gaza, as Senator Cullinane said earlier, have lived in the largest open prison in the world. I plead with the Israeli Government by saying that in our own country we had to deal with what were termed at the time and what were "terrorist organisations". The British and Irish Governments had to sit down with them and talk. Trying to impose a peaceful solution when one does not even respect the dignity of the people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and continues with illegal development and settlement of Palestinian land is not going to work. Many of my colleagues have dealt with what continues to happen, including the targeting of six UN schools and the murders of the innocent. I also regret terribly the killing of many young Israeli soldiers who were sent in there and the mobilisation of 86,000 additional soldiers this week in the reserve forces. What is Israel trying to achieve here? It is not in any way, shape or form protecting its state. The Israeli Defence Forces are not acting as a defence force. They are an attack force in this regard.

The Minister dealt in his opening statement with the situation in Ukraine. The five minutes each speaker has is not enough to deal with it. One must look at the difference between the sanctions against Russia and the inaction in respect of Israel for what it is doing. There is absolute inaction. The Minister made that very clear in his own opening statement. The Irish people understand through our ancestors what it is like to be an oppressed people. That is why I put it that the Irish people have a specific affinity with the Palestinian people. I make no apology for saying that. We understand through our own history what it is like to be oppressed by a big neighbour and a bully supported in effect by the rest of the world.

Is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade working to bring about a revised UN human rights resolution notwithstanding the one that was passed? Is the Government holding in reserve the potential to bring about sanctions on Israel, particularly in respect of goods that are produced in illegal Israeli settlements? All Members condemn all deaths and atrocities but we must be clear that what has happened in Gaza is tantamount to collective punishment of the citizens of Gaza and of innocent people. War crimes have been perpetrated and people's human rights have been grossly violated. The Government must stand up if the rest of Europe will not, as happened in the case of Srebrenica when the EU stood by for months. We have been standing by since 8 July. I ask the Minister to redouble his efforts in that regard.