Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When we were here this day last week the Taoiseach commented that more than 5,000 people were reported to have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza.

That figure now stands at well over 10,000. We should all stop and think about those numbers for a moment. More people have been killed in Gaza in a single week than during the entire conflict in the North of Ireland. Substantially more, in fact, have been killed by Israel over seven days than by all actors to the conflict in Ireland over 30 years. The scale is simply beyond comprehension. Of all those who have been killed by Israel, over 4,000 have been children, over 600 have been elderly and almost 3,000 have been adult women. It continues and the world is allowing it to continue.

Best estimates suggest that there are 2,800 Palestinian civilians currently under rubble, including 1,300 children. I say "estimates" as the precise numbers cannot be determined because Israel continues to drop bombs and because of fuel shortages and communication difficulties resulting from its siege.

Virtually every statement from a western leader on these issues begins with the words, "Israel has a right". We must make it absolutely clear Israel does not have the right to engage in this ferocious, aggressive assault against the civilian population of Gaza. Israel does not have the right to forcibly displace over 1.5 million people. I do not believe this needs to be said but Israel does not have the right to target and bomb hospitals, schools and mosques or destroy refugee camps killing entire families, children, the elderly and people with a disability. No one has that right, not Hamas, not Russia and not Israel. Nor do world leaders have the right to apply double standards. We were all outraged by the attacks on Israeli civilians last month by Hamas. Our calls for a ceasefire includes Hamas and we repeat our demand that all hostages be immediately released. If, however, the outrage and condemnation at the killing of an innocent Israeli child is not matched by equal outrage and condemnation at the killing of an innocent Palestinian child, then the entire basis of international law is cut to shreds. If world leaders stand silent when 90 United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, staff, 192 healthcare personnel, 36 civil defence personnel and 40 journalists are killed by Israel, where lies any authority to ever again point the finger at any other hostile, aggressive action on the part of anyone else?

Ireland has called for a ceasefire. This House is united in that demand, and rightly so. We are in a minority of EU states in that regard and shame on those who refuse to back that humanitarian call. We are, however, clearly in a majority of humanity. The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire and Israel has ignored that call. If anything, Israel has intensified its indiscriminate and illegal actions. The ongoing assaults on the West Bank expose as a lie any notion that this is a war against Hamas. It is an attempt to finally conquer and destroy the Palestinian people.

Israeli forces have now entered Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister has indicated that Israel intends to occupy Gaza. The natural question that emerges is this: What are we going to do about it? Above all, and this is important and must be said repeatedly, our calls for a full, unconditional ceasefire and for the release of hostages, the delivery of adequate humanitarian and an end to the siege and invasion of Gaza must intensify. If, however, Israel continues to defy the will of the world, there must be a price. The international community must now take action to enforce international law.

From an Irish perspective, all available diplomatic, legislative and political options must be deployed by the Government to force Israel to end the barbaric attacks. The Taoiseach's responses to these requests to date are essentially twofold, first, that other EU states will not support sanctions and, second, that Israel would ignore them anyway. These are arguments, in my view, for taking these actions because if others will not act, then we must. We simply cannot stand by while a country that has engaged in the most prolonged and intensive disregard for international law continues to enjoy preferential trading and preferential economic and diplomatic relationships that should be confined to those states that operate to the highest standards of human rights. If we do not take action, the inference is clear; it is that our outrage at the killing of an Israeli child is not matched by equal outrage at the killing of a Palestinian child. If we allow that inference to continue, rather than being a champion of international law and the UN charter that we all strive to be, Ireland will instead become complicit in making those principles meaningless.

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