Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Within days of Putin's bloody and inexcusable invasion of Ukraine, the Taoiseach, along with other European leaders, demanded that Putin and his regime become outcasts in the international community and have argued for boycott, sanctions and divestment of Putin's regime for his horrible crimes. Yet the Taoiseach has reported that he met the Israeli President and continues with normal economic, political and diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, which refused a European parliamentary delegation entry to Palestinian territory. The UN special rapporteur for the Middle East, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B'Tselem all recently condemned the state of Israel for ongoing systematic crimes against humanity.

A siege against Gaza has gone on for a decade and has brought the entirety of Gaza into "a permanent humanitarian crisis". Yet, there is no call for sanctions, a boycott or divestment but just business as usual with the state of Israel. Could the Taoiseach please explain these extraordinary double standards? There has been no sanction at all against Israel, and even when the most respected international human rights organisations in the world are saying there should be targeted sanctions, he resists. I ask the Taoiseach please to explain it, because the double standards are shocking.

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