Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In an ideal world there would always be time for diplomacy, a time to temper our language and talk of peace. However, when children are being bombed in their homes and in their beds, there should be a time to tell the truth. The truth is that what is happening in Gaza at the minute is a massacre. Diplomacy is failing when children are bombed in their homes. Now is the time for plain speaking, to not equivocate in our condemnation, to not equivocate in our language and to not create a false impression of "both sides-ism". Now is the time to call this for what it is. This situation, the Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands, is an annexation. There are evictions, there is the bulldozing of homes and there is displacement on a massive scale: it is an annexation. Now is the time to call out the apartheid and the persecution of the Palestinian people on their own lands for just that: a form of apartheid and a persecution of the Palestinian people. The international organisation Human Rights Watch took that decision over the last number of weeks. It has the full support of many within the international community and the Government would do well to follow suit.

Now is the time to call the leaders and the perpetrators of this massacre, this annexation, what they are: warlords. In particular, the Israeli Minister for Defence campaigned in 2019 on his warlord credentials, and on what he carried out on the people of Gaza in 2014. This is an old tactic of people who create the idea of an enemy at the gates and present themselves as the only one who can fend them off. They dehumanise, they create an impression of being constantly under attack and then they present themselves as being the only ones who can save the populace. The massacre happening in Gaza as we speak will be used to prop up these warlords in elections to come.

When we hear talk of terrorism, we should remember that terrorism has many forms. Terrorism, as we know it in the post-9/11 world, comes from terrorists in caves and terrorists firing rockets but terrorism has another form too. I speak of state-sponsored terrorism, state-aided terrorism and state-enacted terrorism. We hear of, and I mentioned, children being bombed in their beds in Gaza as if these children were asleep. These children could not have been asleep, they would simply have been too terrified. As Deputy Cronin mentioned, 11 of the 65 children killed were undergoing trauma counselling. That is a form of state-enacted terrorism against children and we should call it what it is.

When we speak of the truth we should also talk about how we act. The Government has a responsibility to take action and the people demand we take action. We have a number of options open to us in that regard. There is a mandate in this Chamber for the passing of the occupied territories Bill. The Irish people have a proud tradition of boycotts. Boycott was a weapon of the weak used against the strong throughout our traditions and it is something we can enact in this Chamber by means of that Bill, to say no more will we trade in or do business with the Israeli occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands. There is legal argument and dispute but I argue strongly in favour of having those legal arguments out on Committee Stage. Let us bring it through. Everybody in this Chamber is acting with good intentions, be they in the Government or the Opposition, but there is a bulwark in the form of one particular party and one particular Minister against bringing the occupied territories Bill to the floor of this Chamber and letting it be debated. Now is the time to act. We cannot be equivocating in our language; we cannot be equivocating in our actions. Our diplomacy is failing. Now is the time to recognise the Palestinian state. Now is the time to recognise we all have a responsibility to be brave. We can take actions in this Chamber that will have ramifications around the world. We did it by not handling goods from apartheid-era South Africa and we can do it again. To not do so would be the utmost form of cowardice. I strongly urge the Minister to bring the occupied territories Bill to this Chamber.

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