Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One of the hardest things to take for so many people around the world watching what is going on is the utter contradiction between the celebrations which were almost rubbing people's faces in it and the massacres on the other side. That juxtaposition has made what was already an horrific situation even worse.

I note that the Tánaiste said he was shocked at the scale of the casualties. Deputy Boyd Barrett is right to say that this was expected and anticipated. This day has been coming over recent months. Why has the significant escalation we have seen happened? It is because Israel can get away with it. It gets away with everything else. It is genocide. It is a deliberate targeting and destruction of a people. It may have been a massacre yesterday but it is part of a strategy to annihilate those people, with the blockade and the impact of that.

On the Tánaiste's statement and the points about the American embassy saying it is disappointing and unhelpful, in diplomatic speak that is actually quite strong. I will grant the Tánaiste that. However, it is not enough. Israel is doing what it does because the US has given it the green light and the EU has effectively done nothing. They illegally settle, they illegally occupy the Syrian Golan Heights, they conduct their war with Iran on the back of the Syrian people and so on. It is never-ending. We have to do more. We are a neutral country.

I thought of the nonsense about expelling the Russian diplomat based on solidarity with Britain. What an absolute joke for an unsubstantiated suspicion and a suspected role in a non-murder. Here there is absolute involvement in actual murder and where is the solidarity with the Palestinian people? The expulsion of the ambassador is neither here nor there. It is for optics. It is probably not worth a whole lot. I would like to see a lot more. I would like to see some serious signals like us signing up to the boycott, divest and sanction, BDS, movement and isolating this rogue apartheid state, possibly diplomatically, but certainly economically and internationally. If we do not do so, they are going to keep doing what they do. We have to extend that to the United States which has facilitated and accelerated these unlawful war crimes by its cavalier attitude and appalling stance over the past period.

The Tánaiste probably has spoken up more than most in Europe. I believe that he has. However, he needs to do more. I am not blaming him. I am just encouraging him because this certainly cannot go on.

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