Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza and almost a third of that number are children. There are 1,000 people wounded while 17 hospitals and clinics have been damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip. Its only coronavirus lab has been wrecked and water pipes serving 800,000 people have been broken. Sewerage systems inside Gaza have also been destroyed, with dozens of schools also damaged or destroyed. Almost 100,000 Gazans have been forced to flee their homes. This is a massacre of the Palestinian people and a humanitarian crisis, all because Israel wants more Palestinian land.

The leaders of the world have demonstrated inexcusable silence in the face of the slaughter of the Palestinian people, which is very sad. There are 2 million people penned into an area the size of County Louth. The current violence is not taking place in a vacuum and it is the product of 54 years of Israeli colonisation of Palestinian lands.

Since 1967, 250 illegal Israeli settlements have been erected, with well over 650,000 illegal settlers. This is based on an Israeli strategy of remove, fragment and replace, which is designed to allow Israeli settlers to maximise the amount of Palestinian land for themselves. This is apartheid in practice. In 2020, 848 Palestinian homes were destroyed, affecting 6,380 Palestinians, including 534 children. Up to 30 April this year, 316 buildings were destroyed, representing an increase of 108% on the rate for 2020.

The human cost of this is catastrophic. Thousands have been left homeless and very often following the destruction of schools, young children are forced to travel 15 miles to other schools, during which they will often have to pass settlements where they can be subject to abuse.

We in Sinn Féin call for the implementation of UN resolutions and the enforcement of international law. We call on the Government to exert its power, influence and moral authority to help bring an end to annexation and use its position on the UN Security Council to full effect to create the moral impetus required for the international community to act. We also call on the Government to formally recognise the state of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and give its support to the occupied territories legislation. We further call on the Government to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland for crimes against the Palestinian people.

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