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

We are clearly co-operating, as we are through PESCO, the battle groups, interoperability with NATO, structured co-operation and, of course, in the context of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, it was confirmed by the then Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, that we have attended three meetings at NATO military bases to discuss the situation in Ukraine. It was very interesting to see the sort of attendees who were present at some of these meetings. As well as the usual suspects of all the major NATO and European powers, Israel, for example, was also participating in these meetings. To me, that gives the game away. No one doubts the barbarism of what Putin has done in Ukraine or for that matter the barbarism of what the Russians did in Chechnya, previously in Afghanistan or what they did in Syria. Nobody could possibly doubt that. However, the Tánaiste's narrative is to say that this has fundamentally changed the security situation in a way that we should enhance our relationship with NATO and the project of EU militarisation and effectively, although he will not admit this, further undermine Irish neutrality.

If Putin's illegal, barbaric murderous invasion of Ukraine is criminal and if we need to stand up against this breach of the international rules-based order and against war crimes and crimes against humanity, then surely it would follow that the Tánaiste would take the same attitude towards other states that are guilty of egregious, brutal breaches of territorial integrity, egregious commissions of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Surely he would do that, if he was being honest about his commitment to neutrality and things like the international rules-based order. Neither he nor the European Union nor the United States is, however. He has no problem at all with US arms exports in the billions being sent to the Saudi regime. He is not crying foul about that even though we know and every international human rights organisation is saying that the biggest humanitarian disaster in the world at present is in Yemen. That is a result of Saudi military intervention in a neighbour's country and bombing with weapons provided by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other major EU military exporting countries such as Spain, Italy and so on, which are also ratcheting up their arms sales and their arms exports. However, the Tánaiste says nothing about that or about Israel. Billions worth of European and United States military support in arms sales go to Israel, even though it has been involved since its very foundation, and on an ever-worsening basis, in breaches of the Palestinian territorial integrity, in crimes against humanity, war crimes, the siege of Gaza and in administrative detentions. Even its leaders are publicly saying they want to get rid of the Palestinians. They have publicly said this; they are not even hiding it. They are ethnically cleansing Jerusalem in Palestinian territory, where they have no intention of vindicating the rights of Palestinians under international law, such as the right to return. They are absolutely stating they will never do that, even though Palestinians have those rights under international law.

What does the European Union do? Does it impose the sort of sanctions it imposed on Putin? It does not. It gives favoured trading status to Israel.

It attends NATO meetings with Israel. European countries sends billions worth of arms to Israel and do not even consider sanctions; in fact, they actively resist them. Then the Tánaiste says we must do something about the triple lock, that is, undermine Irish neutrality, because it is completely wrong that Russia can veto UN security resolutions. I agree it is wrong that one of the biggest military powers in the world can veto UN resolutions but why does the Tánaiste not say that about the United States vetoing those resolutions, as it has done time and time again with any resolution that seeks to sanction Israel or any of its allies? Nobody screamed for reform of the UN when the United States did that on multiple occasions. The Tánaiste is not being consistent or balanced in his apparent horror of war, abuses of human rights or war crimes.

Everybody says Putin should be held accountable to the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, as he should be. However, when the same point is put to Joe Biden about war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing against the Palestinians, he says that Israel is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court and, by the way, neither is the United States, so it is not accountable to the International Criminal Court. They think Putin should be accountable to that court but Israel and the United States should not be and the Tánaiste says nothing about that.

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