Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role. It is a very interesting brief and I wish him well in it.

As Israel's fanatics take over its Government and shooting Palestinians becomes a national sport for the Israeli security forces, the Irish Government needs to go beyond expressing concern and condemnation. The apartheid Israeli Finance Minister recently said: "I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, [a] racist, [a] fascist, but my word is my bond." Mr. Itamar Ben-Givr, the new Minister of National Security, who was considered too dangerous to draft into the Israeli defence forces and was convicted of incitement to racism, is now looking to bring in the death penalty. I heard the Tánaiste condemn the introduction of the death penalty in Iran.

Surely the fanatical Israeli Government's calls for the death penalty to be imposed in Israel should be condemned equally and not just condemned but sanctions brought in to ensure that the Israeli Government realises that these measures are completely unacceptable. The new Israeli Government has exposed the myth that Israel is a secular, liberal and enlightened state. The new ministers have no interest in peace, equality or justice; they are more interested in hate, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their home and apartheid. Last year was the deadliest year in the occupied West Bank since records began in 2005. Last year 149 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. That is nearly double the number killed in 2021. If the start of this year is anything to judge, the number for 2023 will exceed the numbers for 2021 and 2022 combined.

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