Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I sought this debate because like many Irish people, I have been horrified by the violence in Gaza and disappointed by our Government's response. Over the last three weeks, Israel has massacred more than 1,300 Palestinians, including over 300 children, in their homes, hospital beds and mosques, and even in UN schools and emergency shelters. It has injured a further 7,000 people, including many children who will be crippled for life. Not only do they have horrific physical injuries, but they are also psychologically scarred because the rest of their families were blown up in front of them. Israel has levelled thousands of homes and destroyed Gaza's basic infrastructure, leaving people without water or power.
The Israeli authorities have tried to justify all of this by pleading Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups. I condemn here, as I have elsewhere, the firing of rockets at residential areas of Israel. I also condemn the killing of three Israeli civilians in recent weeks. However, international law is clear. It requires Israel to respond in a way that is proportionate, is directed at military targets, rather than civilian ones, and takes adequate precautions to ensure the safety of civilians. Israel has wilfully ignored these requirements in executing a murderous campaign that is designed to instil terror among the entire Palestinian population. It is not just immoral; it is a war crime. The international community must hold Israel to account for this.
I was shocked last week when the Irish Government chose to abstain in a UN vote on the establishment of an inquiry into Israel's war crimes in Gaza. As a country, we have always prided ourselves on using our voice in international institutions like the UN to promote human rights and stand up for the oppressed. Last week, we were shamefully silent. The Government hid behind a collective EU statement which claimed that member states were abstaining because the motion did not criticise violence on both sides. The fact is that the motion did contain such criticism. It simply levelled greater criticism at Israel because it has been responsible for a long and horrific catalogue of human rights violations that is simply without comparison on the Palestinian side. It targeted its planned investigation at Israeli war crimes because at that point, Hamas had killed two civilians while Israel had murdered hundreds.
I know the Minister has been an ardent supporter of Israel for a long time. He has a responsibility to represent the views of the Irish people as a whole, most of whom are horrified by what Israel has been doing. The Minister has a duty to do what he can to put pressure on Israel to stop its current assault on Gaza, to lift its blockade and to end its illegal occupation of Palestine.

A return to the situation that existed before the current assault is not good enough. When I visited Palestine last year with Christian Aid I saw first hand how Israel's siege of Gaza has made life hell for its inhabitants, half of whom are children. I saw how Israel is continuing to extend its occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem confiscating Palestinian land and planting thousands more Israelis on it.

While the international community has been talking about a two-state solution, Israel has been doing everything in its power to make such a solution impossible. A spokesperson for the UN relief agency for Palestine criticised Israel yesterday for killing children as they slept next to their parents in a UN designated shelter. He said: "children killed in their sleep - this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame." He went on to say that the world stands disgraced. I say that the world stands disgraced for standing idly by while Israel has ignored countless UN resolutions since 1967. America stands disgraced for arming the Israeli war machine.