Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to draw the Taoiseach's attention to the statement by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on humanitarian pauses in Gaza. There is a particular line which reads: "The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas." I want to know what involvement or engagement there was on this statement with the Irish Government because the difficulty with this is that it provides cover to the Israeli regime. That is why we have what is going on with the likes of Al-Shifa Hospital at this point in time. We have to look at the nature of the regime which is in operation in Israel. We have to look at Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu, a man who has always been against a two-state solution. This was a guy who was willing to ensure that money made its way to Hamas, where Israel would "mow the lawn", as they call it in Israel, every now and again. He probably thought that he had dealt with the Palestinians for 15 years, so he was able to concentrate on the West Bank.

He absolutely failed to protect the Israeli people. What we find is that he is also the guy who stoked up the right wing at the time that Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, one of the most successful assassinations in history it seems, in the sense of the absolute disaster that came after it. However, that is the nature of the regime. It is absolutely against a two-state solution and entirely happy that there is a broken Palestinian leadership and that it can present Hamas in a way that allows it to ask how peace could be had with these people. The fact is, this is the settler movement. This is the politics of Yigal Amir in Israeli Government. How do we produce a roadmap, not only for peace but for self-determination, with these people? We all want to see it. The problem is that these people have never been called out and that is why we need a referral from this State and many others to the ICC.

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