Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is five minutes and five minutes, is it? I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. I note the Taoiseach's speech and I have praised the Taoiseach for showing leadership. I will restrict my praise at this point because I have just read his whole speech and he has given us an outline of what happened with the 27 member states and how they could not reach unity, which highlights, really, the importance of us making our voices heard. He goes on to utterly condemn Hamas for its brutal and provocative terrorist attack, which we all agree with. I absolutely condemn that. However, he goes on to say that "I have been equally clear that Israel's response must be in line with international humanitarian law" and this means it must be proportionate. It is not in compliance with international human law, and it is not proportionate, and there is no condemnation of that. If we are going to have credibility in the world as a neutral state, then we must have consistency. If there is no condemnation of what is an openly genocidal approach to Gaza with genocidal killing, then we are going to lose our credibility. I am most unhappy about that because our strength is in our neutrality and being able to speak truth to power. The Taoiseach goes on to sympathise with those who have lost lives, not in Gaza, mind you, so it is important to read the speech. He goes on to extend his "condolences to the family and friends of the heroic UN and other aid workers who have been killed" and so on, and I absolutely accept that. What is lacking, however, is extending sympathy to the people who have died in Gaza.

Let me give the figures again for the record, and I really feel uncomfortable giving figures in this manner when we are talking about human beings and children. Over 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in one month and one day, including 4,200 children, boys and girls, 631 elderly people and 2,600 women. More than two thirds of Palestinians killed have been children and women. That is not a defensive army. One could not possibly call the army "defence forces" in Israel. That is a warmongering, vengeful army that is out of control and we need to call it out for what it is. We have lost 89 UNRWA staff and 37 journalists and people in media. That has been done by Israel, which is going in to destroy Hamas and in doing so it is destroying the Gazan and Palestinian people. I do not know how we can hedge our bets on that. I do not know how we can use nuanced language. Genocide is genocide. Murder of children is utterly wrong and unacceptable and against all international law. Let us call that out and condemn it if we are going to have credibility.

During his speech, the Taoiseach pointed out the war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. He had no nuanced language there. It was a very clear condemnation. How can we do that on one hand and stand idly by other than to show concern and horror, which he has shown, at the death without condemning it?

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