Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to support the motion. What happened last month was like something one would see in a Netflix movie - a Ryanair aeroplane taking off from one European capital, heading north towards another European capital, and being subjected to an effective hijacking by a leader styling himself on a dictator. In reality, it was the news. A plane full of Europeans and Americans flying from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania got MiGed to Minsk and Lukashenko and his onboard gang of KGB thugs got their priority passenger - a young journalist who was gathering intelligence and exposing corruption, tyranny and brutality in Belarus - all on the pretext of a threat from Hamas when what was happening in Gaza was utterly disgusting. The screenwriters and plotters had all their political bases covered. Politically, it was brazen, reckless and audacious. No doubt, it has given ideas to those of a similar disposition or inclination.

All of us with children who are in their 20s feel the fear and distress of Mr. Roman Protasevich's parents and the sickening worry of his partner, Ms Sofia Sapega's family as they consider the immunity of impunity and vice versabeing established in that part of Europe. This did not just happen on our doorstep, but on one of our budget airlines, Ryanair. At 33,000 ft with a fighter jet escort and a state's lie about a terror threat on board, the people inside the aeroplane were trapped and vulnerable.

I have constituents from Belarus who now live in north Kildare. They are worried about their country and families and are anxious about Lukashenko's grip on their homeland. At the same time, they have fierce pride and fear for the Chernobyl child with the strong ties to Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ms Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has taken the place of her husband after the opposition leader and pro-democracy campaigner was jailed before the elections, joining more than 400 other political prisoners in a country that still has the death penalty and where political detainees are regularly tortured.

I welcome the swift and necessary international political moves against Belarus. Unfortunately, they stand in stark contrast to the international tardiness in similar necessary action against Israel for its breaking of international law in Palestine against the Palestinian people, including 66 dead Gazan children. I urge the international community to look at Belarus and Israel with the same political zeal. We cannot come down hard on those who break international law in one country while tiptoeing around those who break it in another. It is the law itself and the breaking of that law that matters, not who breaks it. It cannot be a case of all eyes on Lukashenko but a blind eye turned to Netanyahu. If it is, we are excusing and complicit in the breaking of international law. I urge the Minister to remember this.

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