Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to open by calling for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to the current outbreak of hostilities in Gaza and Israel; the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages taken by Hamas; and the immediate turning back on of water and electricity to Gaza and the opening of a humanitarian corridor. I also want to condemn the horrific actions of Hamas on 7 October.

But the unprecedented nature and scale of the horror of Hamas’s actions cannot and should not be treated as a carte blanche by the Israeli Government to carry out multiple war crimes on innocent civilians. Cutting off water and electricity to a whole civilian population is not self-defence. It is collective punishment. It is a breach of international law. It is vindictive and ultimately, if it continues, will be directly and consciously responsible for large-scale loss of civilian life.

Some 20 years ago, I worked in the West Bank for a while as a human rights observer. We monitored IDF behaviour at check points; we took testimonies of people impacted in various ways by the occupation; and we provided a protective presence to Palestinians at times and places where they were at risk. Those first few weeks on the job were hugely dispiriting: seeing the impact of the walls, the barriers, the fences, the airport-like checkpoints and suffocating restrictions on movements; the permit systems; the demolition of homes; the illegal confiscation of lands; the ongoing building of illegal settlements; the detention of children by the IDF; the standard harassment of civilians; and the killing of civilians without any or adequate investigation or justice. More recently, on a visit to the West Bank as Minister of State last year, I visited various groups that we support through the Department of Foreign Affairs and met human rights NGOs to hear how their work is being clamped down on and attacked by the Israeli Government. The occupation is one of the most elaborate, cruel and well-resourced systems of oppression in operation in the world today. It is the world’s great failure that the occupation has not only persisted for so many decades but that it has grown and grown with little meaningful halt to its advancement. Nevertheless, while living there temporarily, as someone who could leave, one could not be dispirited for too long as the more Palestinians I met, the more I saw the strength of the people there to carry on and, like us all, to do the best for their children despite the multiple layers of oppression they face daily. The international community owes it to those normal Palestinians who have resisted peacefully for so many decades by simply carrying on and trying to hold their ground to do something different this time. It is very hard right now to look for a solution to the conflict but it is incumbent on us. Whatever the solution might be, an end to the occupation must be part of it. Ireland has some influence with the United States, which could be a key player in this regard. We need to exhaust whatever diplomatic capital we have with Washington to convince the Israeli Government to cease its planned invasion and to open a humanitarian corridor. Unless the Israeli Government steers off its path of deeply misguided retribution, many thousands of innocent Palestinians will die from the consequences of lack of water, food and electricity, not to mention indiscriminate bombing. Every direct and indirect political and diplomatic pressure point that is at our disposal must continue to be used and exhausted to convince the Israeli Government to stop.

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