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

The response of the Israeli state after the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh was consistent with its response to all sorts of similar events over the years. We have seen the imagery of the young man in the white t-shirt showing heroism under gunfire from Israeli snipers in rescuing her body. Those images do not lie and it is very clear what happened here. There must be an independent investigation and I agree with my colleague, Deputy Brady, that the International Criminal Court will have to look at it. It has all the hallmarks of an appalling war crime.

If that was not bad enough, the imagery from the funeral horrified people across the world. Even in death, they could not allow her dignity or her mourners dignity to bury her in peace. It was absolutely disgusting. This is typical of a regime that is unchallenged and allowed to do as it wants by the international community, including our Government. We cannot even pass a resolution banning the products of illegal settlements, which are defined as war crimes under international law. We do commerce with people involved with war crimes. We cannot even pass legislation on that. We cannot recognise the state of Palestine, despite both Houses asking that we do so.

This has led to the actions of the Israeli police force. It is unchallenged internationally and feels it can do anything it wants. Of course, there is also imagery of illegal settlers taking possession of a building in Hebron as the mourners were at the funeral. I do not know what more we can say. I have stood here so many times, as have my colleagues, to speak after witnessing such actions from the Israeli state. B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UN rapporteur have defined what goes on as apartheid and repugnant to international law but the Government cannot even describe it as apartheid because it is hamstrung with an utterly failed European Union policy.

We must speak for ourselves, as we did when South Africa was engaged in apartheid. We took a stand proudly against that regime in the 1980s but will we do it again? Will we have an independent foreign policy that stands up to horrific actions such as those we have seen? The Minister should reflect on that and do the right thing.

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