Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Back in the 1980s, Ireland led the way against the South African apartheid regime, starting with the Dunnes Stores workers and then Ireland was the first country to put in place sanctions against the South African apartheid regime. Human Rights Watch recently published a report comprehensively demonstrating that Israel is an apartheid state, and this follows the report from the respected human rights organisation, B'Tselem. Our Government knows this. That is the context to the slaughter that is happening right now, in which 181 Palestinians have been killed, with 1,200 injuries and 34,000 people displaced. Forty schools operated by the UN are now being used as shelters, and 18 high-rise towers have been destroyed, along with 350 buildings.

When is the Government going to return to the leadership that we showed in the 1980s? When are our people going to have a Government that will do what is right in what we feel about this crisis?

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