Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are living through horrible times. To turn on the TV, open a newspaper or scroll through social media is to allow yourself to witness the very worst of humanity's capacity for people's cruelty to one another. Last night, as news broke of the latest atrocity, hundreds of people, many of them women and children seeking refuge from air strikes, were killed in a blast at a hospital in the centre of Gaza. We are watching these horrors in real time but we understand quickly that these war crimes will echo for generations to come. This morning, I watched doctors from the same hospital appeal to the world to end this slaughter while surrounded by the bodies of those who lost their lives while seeking shelter in a hospital, a place of sanctuary which they believed was one of the last safe spaces in Gaza. There are no safe spaces in Gaza. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. There are no bomb shelters, no non-target zones and nowhere that is off limits in this barbaric and relentless slaughter.

Perhaps, neither the far-right government of Netanyahu nor the extremist leadership of Hamas will pay much heed to the statements made in our Chamber today, but looking away is not an option. The Irish voice is uniquely placed to demonstrate leadership in this conflict and we must not shirk that responsibility. We have experienced the oppressive hand of colonialism and occupation. We have invaded no nation. Irish men and women have only placed boots on foreign soil in the pursuit of peace. We value neutrality in conflict and yet we still have not neglected our moral responsibilities to call out injustice where we see it in the global world. Our peace process, imperfect as it may be, is an exemplar to the rest of the world of the type of miracles that can emerge when communities, and those who have experienced grief and loss within them, demonstrate the will to break the cycle of violence and take the difficult pathway to peace.

We regularly herald the special nature of our relationships with the world and its leaders. A couple of months ago, the President of the United States sat 10 ft from where I am now and spoke with pride about his Irish roots. Today, he spoke words that I do not feel embody those.

Our place is at the table of the European Union. A special affinity clearly exists between the Irish and the Palestinian peoples and there is also the often forgotten but no less deep connections that existed between the founders of modern Israel and the leaders of the emerging Irish State. Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland and the grandfather of the current President of Israel. He was known more colloquially as "the Sinn Féin rabbi". He was a fluent Irish speaker and a friend of de Valera and someone who was passionate about the cause of Irish independence and statehood. All of this means that we are uniquely placed to play a role in ending this conflict. As far away as that ideal may seem, we must utilise every angle at our disposal to maximise the many parts of our complex identity and position ourselves to end this savagery. It is for these and many more reasons today that statements in this Chamber can matter.

In his recent visit to the Middle East, the Tánaiste, as a representative of this State and the leader of his own party, was rightly held to account for the fact that 78 years ago, Eamon de Valera took the decision to send his condolences to Germany on the death of Hitler. History has proven that to be an unconscionable act and it is appropriate that the relatives of his victims choose to hold the Irish State to account for it all of these years later. It should equally serve as a harbinger for the condemnation to befall future generations of Irish people if we do not continue to use every single platform available to us to condemn these atrocities, to scream for a ceasefire and use our courage to go beyond ourselves in believing that we can be a lighthouse for peace in a world that is becoming increasingly more dark.

President Michael D. Higgins embodied perfectly the courage required in his intervention on behalf of the Irish people on Monday evening. Our President's intervention was motivated by the fact that on Friday the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had a valuable opportunity to make a positive intervention in this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. However, instead of reminding Israel that it must adhere to international law in its response to the barbaric attack by Hamas, she offered the EU's unqualified support to Israel. Given that Israel had been engaged in the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and had demanded that 1 million citizens relocate to the south of the region prior to Ms von der Leyen's visit, this amounted to unqualified support for war crimes and a form of ethnic cleansing. Her failure to unequivocally condemn the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, through mass displacement and the indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure, has undermined the EU's response to this crisis.

Our President's intervention was as timely as it was just. It reminded the Commissioner, as she waded uncompassionately into this horror, that she had not been speaking on behalf of the Irish people. I wish to place on the record that I am proud to have a President who, at a time when we are witnessing such barbarism, gave no succour to other people's expectations of his office or convention and who spoke loudly for what was just and right.

I would argue that President von der Leyen's words were equally in contradiction of precisely what the European project is designed to achieve. The European Union and the very concept that states would work towards common aims emerged from the ruins of the Second World War and the determination among nations that never again, would mean just that. What else is this Union if it is not, at its core, a peace project?

In the last week I have heard much talk of breaches and violations of international law. It is my deepest fear that as war crimes become more and more reciprocal that we will become complacent to their meaning. These treaties, in particular the Geneva Convention of 1949, emerged following the war we were told would end wars. They were designed precisely because war is an abomination to the human condition, but never more than when civilians are treated as being indistinguishable from combatants.

One would have needed a heart of stone for it not to break on 7 October as the world watched on at the horror that was unleashed by Hamas on entire families and young Israeli people simply dancing at a festival. The image of a young woman whose broken body lay lifeless as she was carted around on a truck in Gaza is seared into my mind. I cannot begin to imagine the trauma, both immediate and generational, to the Israeli people of watching so many of their citizens being murdered and being carried away as hostages. The crushing impact on the psyche of a nation must be immense. If it were to happen to my family, I can imagine that I would want vengeance but it is precisely for this reason that we have international laws and Israel must be held to abide by them. All states have a right to self-defence but that right should never be deemed a justification for a war crime, however reciprocal one actor deems an action to be over another. Collective punishment - the denial of water and electricity, the displacement of 1.1 million people - is not a defensive manoeuvre and nor should it ever be considered to be one.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence at which the Tánaiste was present, I heard one member ask that, given the horrible events of 7 October, what exactly was Israel to do? The only justifiable answer to that question is that Israel as a state should align itself to the rules of international law. They exist, as does the European Union and indeed the modern State of Israel, precisely because of that same unrelenting and uncompromising call for "never again" to mean precisely that - never again.

I began by referencing the darkness of these horrible times in which we live, but there remain flickers of light and of hope and we must cling to them where they may be found. Michal Halev lost her son Laor during the horrific attacks of 7 October. It took more than a week for her to discover that her son was one of the dead, as opposed to being one of the hostages. Having heard that news, she appeared on a Channel 4 news programme and almost immediately told the world: "The answer to the horror will not be with more horror". It is in such examples of light that we must speak to the courage of peace and never relent in that call.

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