Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I get that. There is also an intergenerational trauma that Israel no doubt feels because of the Holocaust. Ireland should be ready to play a bigger role in trying to find peace. We can talk about Hamas using human shields. Israel also uses human shields when it grabs land, Palestinians are displaced, and people of the Jewish faith are moved onto those lands. What are they only human shields? I would like Ireland to recognise the state of Palestine.

If Sinn Féin is in government, I hope it is something we will be doing. I say this because people need hope. The Palestinians need hope. They have been waiting for the past 30 years for this two-state solution that was promised and that they agreed to. It has not happened.

I think there is a meeting happening this afternoon in this regard. Ursula von der Leyen has to come out and apologise for what she said. There is no hierarchy on pain and suffering and upset. I believe she does have to come out and apologise for not saying the EU stands on the side of international law and humanitarianism. This must be what we have to pursue. We talk about our European values, and this is what they are about. I think Europe must take a bit of a stand back here because of the role it played in the trauma the Jewish people face.

What are we going to do about humanitarian corridors? The idea that the water would be switched off for 2.3 million people is unbelievable. It is unreal that a country, an occupying power, would say that it would reduce water. I am not going to say when I was going to say, but this is unbelievable. The water is being switched on now, but apparently it is coming back very slowly. It is only being switched on in southern Gaza. I used to work with people with disabilities. It has not been possible to move people with disabilities from the northern part of Gaza. Are they actually expected to die of thirst? Is this what Israel wants?

There are also around 5,000 women due to give birth in the next few weeks. These babies are being born into a slaughterhouse. Ireland has to play a much stronger role here. We do not carry the same guilt as the rest of Europe does. I saw something being said on the television last night about European countries having watched Jews being put on trains. No, they did not. Some of them were very quick to put them on trains themselves. The French police did it. It was not only the Nazis who sent the Jews off on trains to concentration camps.

We must get real about this situation. We cannot let this happen again. It keeps on happening. Every few years, we go back to some kind of peace, but it is not peace. The Palestinians are not experiencing peace during this. More children have been killed in Gaza over recent days than have been killed in Ukraine in the past year and a half. This is a war on children and we must be stronger. We do not have to speak with one voice. Ireland has to be strong enough to stand up and speak with a true voice here. We resonate with the people of Palestine because of our "To hell or to Connacht" experience and the intergenerational trauma we as a people have felt. Cromwell did not bomb us on our way to Connacht. Israel has bombed people on their way along human corridors. There are people trying to get to the south of Gaza. They were bombed by Israel.

We must be prepared to stand out. We must be prepared not to speak in one voice. We must be prepared to speak the truth to Israel. That country needs friends and it needs friends that will tell it the truth.