Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach's response is absolutely incredibly weak for an independent sovereign State. On 1 July, the Tánaiste condemned the illegal Israeli settlements. There are 5,500 further housing units in West Bank settlements - this illegal occupation is against international law - and more are planned. What we have here is an operation cynically called Operation Home and Garden. Can the Taoiseach imagine a slaughter of this nature being called Operation Home and Garden? I actually feel like stopping so that words can sink in and mean something.

We have Israel breaking international law completely, moving further and further to complete an utter occupation of the land of the Palestinians, and we are talking about how we are stronger than other countries with our sweet words not meaning anything. We have ignored the Amnesty International report. We have ignored the designation of six organisations as terrorist organisations and we are colluding with Israel in our trade and on every possible level.

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