Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Cathaoirleach in his welcome to my good friends and neighbours from St. Anne's, which does us all proud as an education institution in our community. I echo the words of the Tánaiste to the pupils from St. Anne's that we hope and pray for, and it is our business to try to achieve, a situation where they will grow up in a different world from the one that exists at the moment in terms of international conflict. That is our prayer and our hope, but it must also be what we work towards.

I endorse the motion from the Civil Engagement Group. I absolutely support the motion and every facet thereof. It is a good motion. I say "Well done" to its proposers on bringing it forward. It is timely and right. There is no more important issue they could have brought forward at the moment.

The Tánaiste began by telling us that America has vetoed a UN resolution again today. That is really disappointing and regressive. We are great friends of America in this country, but often the essence of good friendship is straight talking and honest relationships. It is important that, on our behalf, the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach in Washington and every one of us who goes to America for St. Patrick's Day, in whatever capacity, leaves no ambiguity that we think this is wrong, the American support to date is wrong and America has to pull the plug. I saw that the Americans proposed an alternative wording to the Algerian motion. There was a ray of hope in that motion to the extent that America is, at least, calling for there to be no invasion of Rafah, as well as for an end and a humanitarian solution. There is a movement and America is obviously beginning to distance itself, but it is not enough and we must be very firm about that. Israel's behaviour throughout all of this must be utterly condemned. Its behaviour was preceded by years of illegal settlements, effective imperialism and colonialism and the mistreatment of the people of Gaza. All the things it was doing were calculated to make the achievement of a two-state solution extraordinarily difficult. We have to stand firm. I am very proud of how the Government is doing that. We all, collectively, must stand firm on this.

There is a list of statistics that are gruesome and frightening in the prelude to the motion from the Civil Engagement Group. Some of the figures are shocking. A total of 29,000 Palestinians have been killed and 69,000 wounded. Well in excess of 10,000 children are murdered or deceased. There are lots of injuries to people, as well as starvation, malnutrition and a lack of medicine, with amputations and caesarean sections being done without anaesthetic. The entire thing is a horror. I offer one more figure before talking more about the politics of it. A total of 90% of children under two in Gaza and 95% of pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers are facing food poverty at this time. These are horrendous statistics from UNICEF.

We are witnessing horror on a daily basis. We cannot be ambiguous about this. It is openly wrong. Approximately 1.2 million Palestinians were pushed into Rafah in good faith on their part. The idea that there would now be an assault on Rafah is wrong, is a horror and cannot be condoned in any sense of the word. It is not about defence; it is a revenge exercise, as the Taoiseach said recently. It is just wrong. Let us call a spade a spade. A lot of what is happening is genocide in that it is not about the selective identification of terrorists. It is a punishing, criminalising, dehumanising and annihilation of an entire population. It is the elimination of a people in a ruthless, cruel and wrong way. There can be no fancy talk used about this.

I do not like making the next point while our sixth-class visitors are in the Chamber. The West must bear in mind that all of this will breed a new generation of suicide bombers. What will intelligent 15-year-olds do who see their house in rubble, a lot of their family dead, a lot of injuries in those who remain and themselves homeless and orphaned on the street? We know this all too well in Ireland. That intelligent 15-year-old is a potential suicide bomber. That intelligent 15-year-old will bring the war to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and to Dublin and Paris. It is a horrible thought but there is no avoiding it. That will be the ultimate result of some of what is happening. We will not be able to live smugly in isolation from it. These children are suffering from post-traumatic stress.

We need a ceasefire. We must support sanctions at EU level. We need to recognise the state of Palestine. At this stage, any nice talk must finish. What is happening is not acceptable and we should be unambiguous in our approach.