John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. I sometimes wonder do debates such as this mean anything to anybody. One hopes that somebody somewhere is listening.

This week 58 demonstrators were killed in Gaza doing nothing other than demonstrating, while 2,800 were injured, of which 228 were children. The response of us as a nation and the Government is to condemn it. A few weeks ago, a former Russian spy and his daughter were suspected of being poisoned by agents of the Russian Government. Following on from the response from the US and many other European countries, we expelled a Russian diplomat from its embassy in Dublin. I do not understand how one can compare the proportionality of our response to the suspected involvement of a government in the poisoning of a former spy to the shooting dead of 58 demonstrators in Gaza. Ireland is a small nation but, sometimes, a small nation can take a big stand.

The people in Gaza were demonstrating because there are over 2 million people living on a tiny strip of land without proper water supplies, sanitation, electricity and hope. No wonder they are demonstrating. What other option have they? Without the prospect of a future, subversive groups within the Gaza Strip will come to the fore. That will just lead to a further cycle of violence and despair.

As a country, we need to reflect and ask what would be the response of the Government if 58 innocent Israelis were shot dead this week or 2,800 innocent Israeli demonstrators were injured, including women and children. It would be completely different. We are guilty of inaction. We support the two-state solution. We claim to support and recognise the state of Palestine. I certainly do. Yet, we stand idly by when atrocities, such as what happened this week, occur. By standing idly by, we are as a nation, a Government and a Parliament guilty by association.

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