Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Ms Natasha Hausdorff:
The key is the misinformation that Hamas and its supporters are putting out. Some 1,847,915 tonnes of aid have been facilitated by Israel into the Gaza Strip throughout this war. As of last weekend, 73 million meals had been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in its first couple of months of operation. That is the reality. What we are hearing from so many of those who profess to speak on behalf of the Palestinians, including NGOs who frankly should know better, is a false narrative here. The proof of that pudding was in the fact that they immediately came out to tell Palestinian civilians not to accept aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The reason for this is because it is the first mechanism that has successfully delivered aid which is not then being diverted to Hamas. The theme here continues: it is succour for Hamas and support for Hamas. At the core of the prolongation of this conflict is the misinformation about aid and the misinformation that circulates about blood libels, genocide or the targeting of civilians, which is completed contrary to what Israel has created.
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