John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Israel is carrying out war crimes in Gaza on a daily basis as it has been doing on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem for decades now. The collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza is a war crime. It has led to the deaths of over 11,000 civilians, two thirds of whom are women and children. Some 101 UN workers have been murdered. This is the highest number in any conflict in the UN's history. Israel has instrumentalised human aid as a weapon of war and despite the fact that the situation in Palestine was referred to the International Criminal Court in 2014, the ICC has been unable to investigate Israeli war crimes primarily because of a lack of funding. This is also because of the blatant interference by both Israel and the United States, combined with the ambivalence of the international community.

Both Israel and the US have claimed that the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction. Israel described the Palestinian Authority's referral of Israel to the ICC as a hostile act, and threatened the Palestinian Authority with the withholding of taxes and customs collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Donald Trump went further, actually imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court prosecutors and threatening legal action against them ifthey investigated Israeli war crimes. The immunity which has been conferred on Israel by the international community for its past and continuing international crimes in the occupied territories has emboldened Israel's efforts during the current wave of violence. Ireland needs to make a referral to the International Criminal Court for Israel's war crimes in Gaza.

In 2022, the Government provided €3 million to the ICC investigation in Ukraine. The Belgian Government recently provided €5 million for the ICC to investigate the war crimes in Palestine. The Irish Government needs to match that funding if not to go further.

The Government also needs to support the immediate advancement of the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill because the Government has made the Irish taxpayers shareholders in the crimes being perpetrated by Israel as we speak. Ireland needs to send a clear message that the days of Israel's immunity for its war crimes is over. I plead with the Minister of State to do the right thing, to be on the right side of history, to support the motion and to refer Israel to its right place which is the Hague and the International Criminal Court.

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